The Effect of Long Working Hours and Overtime on Occupational Health: A Meta-Analysis of Evidence from 1998 to 2018
Open accessAbstract
There has been no subsequent meta-analysis examining the effects of long working hours on health or occupational health since 1997. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a meta-analysis covering studies after 1997 for a comparison. A total of 243 published records were extracted from electronic databases. The effects were measured by five conditions, namely, physiological health (PH), mental health (MH), health behaviours (HB), related health (RH), and nonspecified health (NH). The overall odds ratio between long working hours and occupational health was 1.245 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.195–1.298). The condition of related health constituted the highest odds ratio value (1.465, 95% CI: 1.332–1.611). The potential moderators were study method, cut-point for long weekly working hours, and country of origin. Long working hours were shown to adversely affect the occupational health of workers. The management on safeguarding the occupational health of workers working long hours should be reinforced.
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- Authors
- Wong, K., Chan, A. H. S., & Ngan, S. C.
- Affiliations
- Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-06-13
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2102
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6617405
- OpenAlex
- W2949317369
- Cited by
- 427
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 81 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 6.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- CityU Scholars (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
- Keywords
- long working hours, overtime, occupational health, physiological health, mental health, health behavior, employee health, working hours
- MeSH terms
- Occupational Stress, Fatigue, Humans, Sleep Wake Disorders, Wounds and Injuries, Occupational Health, Workload
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