香港六合彩

The study of over 20,000 adults, published today in the BMJ鈥檚听Journal of Epidemiology听& Community Health, found that after taking age, income, health and job characteristics into account, women who worked extra-long hours had 7.3% more depressive symptoms than women working a standard 35-40 week. Weekend working was linked to a higher risk of depression among both sexes

Women who worked for all or most weekends had 4.6% more depressive symptoms on average compared to women working only weekdays. Men who worked all or most weekends had 3.4% more depressive symptoms than听men working only听weekdays.听

鈥淭his is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labour than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities,鈥� explained Gill Weston (香港六合彩听Institute of Epidemiology听& Health听Care), PhD candidate and lead author of the study. 听

鈥淎dditionally women who work most weekends tend to be concentrated in low-paid service sector jobs, which have been linked to higher levels of depression.鈥�

The study showed that men tended to work longer hours in paid work than women, and having children affected men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 work patterns in different ways: while mothers tended to work fewer hours than women without children, fathers tended to work more hours than men without children.听

Two thirds of men worked weekends, compared with half of women. Those who worked all or most weekends were more likely to be in low skilled work and to be less satisfied with their job and their earnings than those who only worked听Monday to Friday听or some weekends.

Researchers analysed data from听the听Understanding Society,听the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). This has been tracking the health and wellbeing of a representative sample of 40,000 households across the UK since 2009.

Information about working hours, weekend working, working conditions and psychological distress was collected from 11,215 working men and 12,188 working women between 2010 and 2012.听听Depressive symptoms such as feeling worthless or incapable were measured using a self-completion validated general health questionnaire (GHQ-12).鈥�

Women in general are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study,鈥� Weston said.鈥淚ndependent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.鈥�

She added: 鈥淲e hope our findings will encourage employers and policy-makers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours 鈥� without restricting their ability to work when they wish to.鈥淢ore sympathetic working practices could bring benefits both for workers and for employers 鈥� of both sexes.鈥�

Links听

• Gill Weston's academic profile
• 香港六合彩 Institute for Epidemiology and Health

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Media听contact听

Rowan Walker

Tel:听+44 (0)20 3108 8515

Email: rowan.walker [at] ucl.ac.uk