Abstract
Objectives
Long working hours have been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. However, results are inconsistent and large cohort studies are needed to confirm these findings.
Methods
We conducted a census-based cohort study including 11,903,540 Italian workers aged 20–64 years, registered in the 2011 census, with a 5-year follow-up (2012–2016). We estimated cause-specific hazard ratios (cHRs) through Cox regression models to quantify the association between long working hours and CVD mortality.
Results
Over 5 years of follow-up, 17,206 individuals died from CVD (15,262 men and 1944 women). Men working 55 or more hours per week had a cHR of 0.95 (95% confidence interval, CI 0.89–1.02) for all CVDs, while women showed a cHR of 1.19 (95% CI 0.95–1.49). Professional women working more than 55 h per week had a cHR of 1.98 (95% CI 0.87–4.52).
Conclusions
This study does not support an association between long working hours and CVD mortality among active Italian men, while it suggests a possible excess risk among women, although based on limited number of events.
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GA, LF and PB conceived the study. GA and PB performed the data analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results.
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This study is part of an extensive project of the Italian National Institute of Statistics based on the record linkage of pre-existing data. Data were anonymized and irreversibly de-identified after the linkage. The project is included in the National Statistical Program and was approved by the Italian Data Protection Authority.
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Alicandro, G., Bertuccio, P., Sebastiani, G. et al. Long working hours and cardiovascular mortality: a census-based cohort study. Int J Public Health 65, 257–266 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01361-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01361-y