Is there a relationship between working hours and hypertension? Evidence from the United States

Previous studies find conflicted results on the relationship between long working hours and hypertension. Establishing a consensus for the direction of the relationship, more research is needed.

Although the European Union's Working Time Directive limits weekly working hours, no such similar restriction exists in the United States. This leads to the important question of which is a better policy. This study bridges a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between working hours and having hypertension among older workers in the United States.

We applied the Cox regression and probit methods to panel data taken from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS.)RESULTS:We found that an increase in a person's working hours reduces the probability of having high blood pressure for male and female workers.

This study's findings may raise questions about the need for initiatives in the European Union and other countries that regulate the length of work schedules.