Study finds people working long hours more prone to heavy drinking habits

A study involving 330,000 participants in about 14 countries across several continents now suggests people working long hours are more prone to heavy drinking. Considering the hundreds of thousands of subjects analyzed over the world, this study qualifies as one of the biggest studies conducted anywhere in the world over a pertinent everyday issue.

The study further reveals that workers working for longer than 48 hours per week have an 11% tendency to drink higher quantities of alcohol; and this indicates that binge drinking translates to 4 drinks or more per week for women and 21 drinks or more per week for men.

“The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed…Further research is needed to assess whether preventive interventions against risky alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours,” said Cassandra Okechukwu of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers might find it quite difficult to draw the line between working longer hours and heavy drinking – because this is not rocket science – but the fact remains that working consistently for long hours is never good for the health, and this is the first time researchers will be pointing to an association between long hours of work and drinking.

“The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population is employed…Further research is needed to assess whether preventive interventions against risky alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours.”

Prior to this time, working longer hours has been linked to diabetes risks and stress among others, and alcohol has been linked to diabetes, blood pressure, sperm quality, memory impairment and loss of self control among others.

This study was published in the British Medical Journal.