Long work hours can increase risk of alcohol abuse

Employees who work more than 48 hours per week are more likely to engage in risky drinking than those who work standard weeks, a new study has found.
Risky alcohol consumption is considered as more than 14 drinks per week for women and more than 21 drinks per week for men.
It is believed to increase risk of adverse health problems, including liver diseases, cancer, stroke, coronary heart disease and mental disorders.
Previous research has found a link between working longer hours and risky alcohol consumption, but this has involved only small, tentative studies.
While alcohol may help to ease the stress of working long periods of time, risky consumption is also associated with difficulties in the workplace, including increased sick leave, poor performance, impaired decision making and occupational injuries.

Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland, and colleagues have provided the first systematic analysis on the association between long working hours and alcohol use.

In a cross sectional analysis of 333,693 people in 14 countries, they found that longer working hours increased the likelihood of higher alcohol use by 11 per cent.
A prospective analysis found a similar increase in risk of 12 per cent for onset of risky alcohol use in 100,602 people from 9 countries.
Individual participant data from 18 prospective studies showed that those who worked 49-54 hours and 55 hours per week or more were found to have an increased risk of 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively of risky alcohol consumption compared with those who worked 35-40 hours per week.

The authors point out that no differences were seen between men and women or by age, socioeconomic status or region.
Although, in absolute terms, the difference between the groups was relatively small, the authors argue that any exposure with avoidable increases in disease or health damaging behaviour, or both, warrants careful examination.
"The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed," researchers said.
The study was published in journal The BMJtoday.