Employees who work over 48 hours per week are more likely to engage in risky alcoholic behavior compared with those who have an average work week.
The European Union Working Time Directive (EUWT) ensures workers in covered counties don't have the right to work more than 48 hours per week, including overtime, but many people do work longer hours in hopes of achieving quick promotions and raises, the British Medical Journal reported.
Past research has found links between working longer hours and participating in risky alcohol-related behavior, but this conclusion has only been come to through small studies. These new findings help back up the link between overworking and excessive alcohol consumption. This type of behavior can have negative effects such as "difficulties in the workplace, including increased sick leave, poor performance, impaired decision making and occupational injuries," the researchers reported.
To make their findings the researchers conducted a cross sectional analysis of 333,693 people in 14 countries, and determined longer working hours increased alcohol consumption by about 11 percent. A prospective analysis also found a risk of 12 percent in 100,602 people from 9 countries.
Individual participant data from 18 prospective studies revealed people who worked between 49 and 54 hours and 55 hours per week had an increased risk of 13 and 12 percent respectively when compared to those who were at work between 35 and 40 hours per week.
Even though these increases are relatively small, the researchers said any avoidable increase in a behavior that could be harmful to health should be taken seriously.
"The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed," the team of researchers wrote. "Further research is needed to assess whether preventive interventions against risky alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours."
The findings were reported in the British Medical Journal.
