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Long working hours directly and indirectly (via short sleep duration) induce headache even in healthy white-collar men: cross-sectional and 1-year follow-up analyses

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 20 October 2017

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Abstract

Objective

Headache in employees may be linked with both overwork and sleep restriction induced by long working hours. Inter-relationships among working hours, sleep duration and headache were investigated.

Methods

Cross-sectional analyses for prevalent headache (n = 35,908) and 1-year follow-up analyses for incident headache (n = 19,788) were conducted in apparently healthy white-collar men aged 25–59 years. Headache (yes/no), working hours and sleep duration were based on self-administered questionnaire. After determination of relationships between working hours and sleep duration, logistic regression analysis estimated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval for prevalent and incident headache according to working hours (35–44, 45–49, 50–59 and ≥60 h/week) and sleep duration (≥7, 6–6.9, 5–5.9 and <5 h/day), and tested linear trends in OR. Additionally, interactive effects of working hours and sleep duration on OR were checked. Covariates in the analyses were age, body mass index, drinking, smoking and exercise.

Results

Prevalent and incident headache was found in 1979 (5.5%) men and 707 (3.6%) men, respectively. Working hours were inversely associated with sleep duration. OR for prevalent and incident headache rose with increasing working hours and with reducing sleep duration, regardless of influences of the covariates. Working hours and sleep duration had no interactive effects on OR for prevalent or incident headache.

Conclusions

The results indicate that long working hours directly and indirectly (via short sleep duration) induce headache even in apparently healthy white-collar men. Headache in employees may be useful for early detection of adverse health effects by long working hours.

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Change history

  • 20 October 2017

    Author Correction: Int Arch Occup Environ Health DOI 10.1007/s00420-017-1255-6.

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Acknowledgements

This study was in part supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP23590805, JP26460750. We thank medical, co-medical and clerical staff of the Central Clinic Group for collecting medical records and for data correction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8601, Japan

    Teruo Nagaya

  2. Kokusai Central Clinic, 1-47-1 Nagono, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, 450-0001, Japan

    Minoru Hibino & Yasuaki Kondo

Authors
  1. Teruo Nagaya
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  2. Minoru Hibino
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  3. Yasuaki Kondo
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Correspondence to Teruo Nagaya.

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A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1271-6.

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Nagaya, T., Hibino, M. & Kondo, Y. Long working hours directly and indirectly (via short sleep duration) induce headache even in healthy white-collar men: cross-sectional and 1-year follow-up analyses. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 91, 67–75 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1255-6

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