Work hours and self-reported hypertension among working people in California

Among the risk factors for hypertension, stress, especially work stress, has drawn increasing attention. Another potential work-related risk factor for hypertension identified in the past few years is work hours. This article presents an analysis of work hours and self-reported hypertension among the working population in the state of California. The data set used for this study comes from the Public Use File of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. The logistic regression analysis shows a positive association between hours worked per week and likelihood of having self-reported hypertension. Compared with those working between 11 and 39 hours per week, individuals working 40 hours per week were 14% (95% CI: 1.01 to 1.28) more likely to report hypertension, those who worked between 41 and 50 hours per week were 17% (95% CI: 1.04 to 1.33) more likely to report hypertension, and those who worked >or=51 hours per week were 29% (95% CI: 1.10 to 1.52) more likely to report hypertension after controlling for various potentially confounding variables, including demographic and biological risk factors and socioeconomic status. This analysis provides evidence of a positive association between work hours and hypertension in the California working population.