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Long working hours and alcohol use: systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data
journal contribution
posted on 2015-10-29, 09:54 authored by Marianna Virtanen, Markus Jokela, Solja T. Nyberg, Mark HamerObjective To quantify the association between long working hours and
alcohol use.
Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and
unpublished individual participant data.
Data sources A systematic search of PubMed and Embase databases
in April 2014 for published studies, supplemented with manual searches.
Unpublished individual participant data were obtained from 27 additional
studies.
Review methods The search strategy was designed to retrieve cross
sectional and prospective studies of the association between long
working hours and alcohol use. Summary estimates were obtained with
random effects meta-analysis. Sources of heterogeneity were examined
with meta-regression.
Results Cross sectional analysis was based on 61 studies representing
333 693 participants from 14 countries. Prospective analysis was based
on 20 studies representing 100 602 participants from nine countries.
The pooled maximum adjusted odds ratio for the association between
long working hours and alcohol use was 1.11 (95% confidence interval
1.05 to 1.18) in the cross sectional analysis of published and unpublished
data. Odds ratio of new onset risky alcohol use was 1.12 (1.04 to 1.20)
in the analysis of prospective published and unpublished data. In the 18
studies with individual participant data it was possible to assess the
European Union Working Time Directive, which recommends an upper
limit of 48 hours a week. Odds ratios of new onset risky alcohol use for
those working 49-54 hours and ≥55 hours a week were 1.13 (1.02 to
1.26; adjusted difference in incidence 0.8 percentage points) and 1.12
(1.01 to 1.25; adjusted difference in incidence 0.7 percentage points),
respectively, compared with working standard 35-40 hours (incidence
of new onset risky alcohol use 6.2%). There was no difference in these
associations between men and women or by age or socioeconomic
groups, geographical regions, sample type (population based v
occupational cohort), prevalence of risky alcohol use in the cohort, or
sample attrition rate.
Conclusions Individuals whose working hours exceed standard
recommendations are more likely to increase their alcohol use to levels
that pose a health risk.
Funding
The IPD-Work Consortium is supported by the EU New OSH ERA Research Program (funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund and the Academy of Finland, Finland; the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Sweden; the German Social Accident Insurance, Germany; and the Danish Work Environment Research Fund, Denmark); the BUPA Foundation (grant 22094477), and the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Netherlands. MV is supported by the Academy of Finland (grants 258598, 265174), MK is supported by the Medical Research Council (grant K013351), the Economic and Social Research Council, and the US National Institutes of Health (grants R01HL036310 and R01AG034454), and SN is supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund.
History
School
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