Article Text
Abstract
Background Globalised and 24/7 business operations have fuelled demands for people to work long hours and weekends. Research on the mental health effects of these intensive temporal work patterns is sparse, contradictory or has not considered gender differences. Our objective was to examine the relationship between these work patterns and depressive symptoms in a large nationally representative sample of working men and women in the UK.
Method The current study analysed data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, of 11 215 men and 12 188 women in employment or self-employment at the time of the study. Ordinary least squares regression models, adjusted for potential confounders and psychosocial work factors, were used to estimate depressive symptoms across categories of work hours and weekend work patterns.
Results Relative to a standard 35–40 hours/week, working 55 hours/week or more related to more depressive symptoms among women (ß=0.75, 95% CI 0.12 to 1.39), but not for men (ß=0.24, 95% CI −0.10 to 0.58). Compared with not working weekends, working most or all weekends related to more depressive symptoms for both men (ß=0.34, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.61) and women (ß=0.50, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.79); however, working some weekends only related to more depressive symptoms for men (ß=0.33, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.55), not women (ß=0.17, 95% CI −0.09 to 0.42).
Conclusion Increased depressive symptoms were independently linked to working extra-long hours for women, whereas increased depressive symptoms were associated with working weekends for both genders, suggesting these work patterns may contribute to worse mental health.
- depression
- gender
- mental health
- psychosocial factors
- work stress
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Footnotes
Contributors This study was conceived of and planned by all authors. GW undertook the data analysis, with statistical advice and contributions from all authors on the results and interpretation. GW led on writing the manuscript with contribution and editing from all authors, and approval from all on the final version. GW is the guarantor for the study.
Funding GW was self-funded in this study. AZ is supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/R003114/1]. AM and EW were supported by the Economic and Social Research Council International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health (ICLS) [grant number ES/J019119/1]. LAC is supported by the Medical Research Council, UK
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval Ethical approval was not required for this secondary data analysis. The Understanding Society, UKHLS study had been approved by the University of Essex ethics committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement The UKHLS dataset is available under End User Licence from the UK Data Archive (http://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk).
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it first published.
Patient consent for publication Not required.