Long work hours at the office linked to both regular and hidden high blood pressure

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/aha-lwh121719.php

News Release 19-Dec-2019
American Heart Association

Office workers who spend long hours on the job are more likely to have high blood pressure, including a type that can go undetected during a routine medical appointment, according to a new study published today in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension.

•••••

Compared with colleagues who worked fewer than 35 hours a week:

Working 49 or more hours each week was linked to a 70% greater likelihood of having masked hypertension and 66% greater likelihood of having sustained hypertension- elevated blood pressure readings in and out of a clinical setting.
Working between 41 and 48 hours each week was linked to a 54% greater likelihood of having masked hypertension and 42% greater likelihood of having sustained hypertension.
The findings accounted for variables such as job strain, age, sex, education level, occupation, smoking status, body mass index and other health factors.

"Both masked and sustained high blood pressure are linked to higher cardiovascular disease risk," said lead study lead author Xavier Trudel, Ph.D., assistant professor in the social and preventive medicine department at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

•••••