Long working hours leading to rise in deaths, say health experts
- Exceeding 55 hours a week is a ‘serious health hazard’, as new study shows link to heart disease and stroke
- The disease burden is more common among older workers and men, and people who live in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific are particularly affected
Working more than 55 hours a week is a “serious health hazard,” health experts have said after a new study suggested long working hours are leading to an increasing number of deaths from heart disease and stroke.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the boundaries between home and work life had become even more “blurred” due to home working during the coronavirus pandemic.
In some industries fewer people were being required to take on more work as companies scaled back the workforce after losing income. The remarks come as a new study linked hundreds of thousands of deaths to long working hours.
Researchers looked at data from 194 countries – including from the Office for National Statistics in Britain.
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The analysis from WHO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) concluded that, around the globe, working more than 55 hours each week was linked to 398,000 deaths from stroke and 347,000 from heart disease in 2016 – a 29 per cent increase from the year 2000.