Long working hours and cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies

To conduct a meta-analysis from published studies to evaluate the relationship between long working hours and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Among a total of 341 published studies found from publicly accessible databases, five cohort studies and six case-control studies were analyzed for the study.

Statistically significant heterogeneity has been observed (P = 0.037). The effect of longer working hours was significantly associated with the risk of CVD in the random-effects model of all 11 studies (odds ratio, 1.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.11 to 1.70). On the basis of meta-regression analysis, the result was not affected by the mean age, region, or the study year. The P value using Eager test was 0.701 suggesting this analysis was unlikely to have any publication bias.

These findings provide evidence of increased CVD with long working hours.