Study: Working long hours increases stroke risk

Clocking in more than 55 hours of work per week? A new study in The Lancet found workaholics face a 33 percent greater risk of stroke and a 13 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease compared to people working a standard 40 hours.

Researchers studied more than 500,000 men and women in Europe, the United States and Australia and is the largest study of its kind comparing working hours to stroke risk. The study did not prove a cause for the increased risk, but researchers stated that the numbers are high enough that workers should begin finding ways to decrease risk. 

"Earlier studies have pointed to heart attacks as a risk of long working hours, but not stroke," Dr. Urban Janlert, a professor of public health at Umea University in Sweden wrote in an editorial accompanying the study. "That’s surprising."

Read the study here. 

Megan Combs

Megan Combs was Associate Editor of I Advance Senior Care / Long Term Living from 2013-2018.