Working long hours in low-paid job ‘raises diabetes risk’

People in low-status, poorly- paid jobs who work 55 hours or more a week are 30 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those putting in 35 to 40 hours, scientists found.

The difference remained after taking account of factors such as smoking, physical activity, age, gender and obesity.

Even excluding the impact of shift work, which has been shown to increase the risk of obesity and diabetes, did not alter the result.

Researchers analysed data from more than 222,000 men and women who participated in diabetes studies in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.

Lead scientist Professor Mika Kivimaki, from University College London, said: “The pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed us to investigate the association between working hours and diabetes risk with greater precision than has been previously possible.

“Although working long hours is unlikely to increase diabetes risk in everyone, health professionals should be aware that it is associated with a significantly increased risk in people doing low socio-economic status jobs.”

The findings are reported in the medical journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

In an accompanying comment article, Dr Orfeu Buxton, from Pennsylvania State University, and Dr Cassandra Okechukwu, from Harvard School of Public Health, wrote: “The results remained robust even after controlling for obesity and physical activity, which are often the focus of diabetes risk prevention, suggesting that work factors affecting health behaviours and stress may need to be addressed as part of diabetes prevention.”

Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, which co-funded the research, said: “The findings of this study suggest a link between working more than 55 hours a week and an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but only in those people deemed to be in low socio-economic groups.”

The study was published just 24 hours after it was claimed that as many as one in every 10 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is a normal weight.

The figures from charity Diabetes UK revealed that 11.3 per cent of people diagnosed with the condition are deemed to have a normal weight.

And a small number of patients – 0.4 per cent – are actually underweight.