05 Apr Working Long Hours Unlikely To Influence Cancer Risk

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Katriina Heikkila, PhD
Lecturer, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Honorary Researcher, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Dr. Heikkila:  Governments across the world have set regulations on working time, many recommending a maximum of 48- or 55-hour working week but many men and women today regularly work longer than recommended maximum hours. Working exceedingly hours is associated with many adverse health outcomes, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the relationship of excess working hours with incident cancer has so far been unclear. To address this gap in the knowledge, we investigated the association between weekly working hours and incident cancer using individual-level data from over 116 000 initially cancer-free men and women from 12 research studies from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

MedicalResearch.com:  What are the main findings?

Dr. Heikkila: During an average follow-up of nearly 11 years, over 4 000 participants developed cancer. We found no association between weekly working hours and incident colorectal, lung or prostate cancers. Working >55 hours per week was associated with slight increase in female breast cancer risk, but we suspect this observation may be due to residual confounding from parity. This means that the number of children the women had, which can impact on both their cancer risk and the hours they work, may have impacted on this finding. The relationship between working hours, breast cancer and parity would warrant further research.

MedicalResearch.com:  What should patients and clinicians take away from this report?

Dr. Heikkila: Our findings can reassure patients that working long hours is unlikely to influence the risk of developing cancer. However, currently available evidence suggests that working longer than recommended hours can have other adverse effects on health, and clinicians and patients need work together to manage these.

Citation:

Br J Cancer. 2016 Mar 29;114(7):813-818. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2016.9. Epub 2016 Feb 18.

Long working hours and cancer risk: a multi-cohort study.

Heikkila K^1,2, Nyberg ST², Madsen IE³, de Vroome E⁴, Alfredsson L^5,6, Bjorner JJ³, Borritz M⁷, Burr H⁸, Erbel R⁹, Ferrie JE^10,11, Fransson EI^6,12,13, Geuskens GA⁴, Hooftman WE⁴, Houtman IL⁴, Jöckel KH¹⁴, Knutsson A¹⁵, Koskenvuo M¹⁶, Lunau T¹⁷, Nielsen ML¹⁸, Nordin M^13,19, Oksanen T², Pejtersen JH²⁰, Pentti J², Shipley MJ¹⁰, Steptoe A¹⁰, Suominen SB^21,22,23, Theorell T¹³, Vahtera J^2,21,24, Westerholm PJ²⁵, Westerlund H¹³, Dragano N¹⁷, Rugulies R^3,26, Kawachi I²⁷, Batty GD^10,28, Singh-Manoux A^10,29, Virtanen M², Kivimäki M^2,10,3

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Katriina Heikkila (2016). Working Long Hours Unlikely To Influence Cancer Risk MedicalResearch.com

Last Updated on April 5, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD