Study: Long Work Hours Increase Illness and Injury Risk

Posted on August 22, 2005

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on a study that has found that long work hours increase a workers chance of getting sick or injured by 61%. Allard Dembe analyzed the nearly 11,000 responses to the annual National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to obtain the results.

There were 5,139 work-related injuries and illnesses in the 110,236 U.S. job records Dembe analyzed. More than half of these were in jobs with extended working hours or overtime.

Working longer hours, such as at least 12 hours a day, was associated with a 37 percent increase in illness or injury, while working at least 60 hours a week was associated with a 23 percent increase. Long commuting had no impact on the rate, the researcher found.

Dembe told the Seattle P-I that, "Long working hours, and in particular overtime, induce fatigue or stress, which may lead to injury and illness." But you have to also wonder at what point boredom may also lead to an injury.

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