The dose-response relationship between working hours and prevalence of hypertension in construction workers: evidence...

The rapid urban expansion and renewal in China have increased the workload and work intensity for construction workers. Prolonged work hours prevent these builders from having adequate recovery time, which may be associated with higher susceptibility to occupational injuries and chronic diseases. This study aimed to explore the dose-response relationship between weekly working hours and hypertension among construction workers.

A cross-sectional study was carried out from June to July 2022 in Wuhan, China. A stratified cluster random sampling method was used, and all construction workers at their respective construction sites were invited to participate. Unconditional logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were utilized to evaluate the dose-response relationship between weekly working hours and hypertension. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the results.

A total of 750 construction workers were included in our study, and the prevalence of hypertension among them was 18.00%. Workers with hypertension reported longer weekly working hours (67.64 ± 12.70 h/week) than those without hypertension (59.72 ± 12.81 h/week). The likelihood of having hypertension was found to be 4.22 (95% CI = 2.10-8.49) times higher for those in the Q3 group and 4.90 (95% CI = 2.26-10.64) times higher (66-70 h/week) for those in the Q4 group (71-140 h/week) compared to the Q1 group (10-54 h/week). The RCS analysis showed a non-linear dose-response relationship between weekly working hours and hypertension (P _non-linear< 0.05), and the results were consistent across subgroups.

In this cross-sectional study, longer weekly working hours were associated with higher odds of hypertension among construction workers.