Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
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THURSDAY, April 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A grueling work schedule in young adulthood can affect health in midlife, a new study finds.
Young people who worked shifts other than the typical 9-to-5 were more likely to report poor sleep and symptoms of depression in their 50s, researchers found.
“The jobs that were supposed to provide the resources to sustain a decent life are now threatening a healthy life,” said Wen Jui Han, a researcher and professor at New York University.
For the study, Han and his colleagues analyzed data from a longitudinal study that tracked the health of more than 7,000 people in the United States for more than 30 years.
They found that from their 20s to their 40s, people rarely had a continuous 9-to-5 schedule.
“In fact, approximately three-quarters of the work patterns we observed did not strictly adhere to working consistently during the day throughout the work period,” Han said in a university news release. . “This has implications.”
Such erratic working hours are associated with sleep deprivation, physical fatigue and mental fatigue, all of which can contribute to poor health, Han said.
“People with work patterns that involve some degree of fluctuation or variability tend to sleep for less time each day, have poorer sleep quality, and have poorer physical and mental functioning at age 50 than those who do not.'' “They are more likely to report poor health and symptoms of depression with a stable and standard work schedule,” Han added.
The most striking finding was that 17% of study participants had stable work hours in their 20s, but transitioned to precarious work patterns in their 30s.
This shows that the positive and negative effects of work schedules on health can accumulate over a lifetime, Han said.
Inconsistency in working hours is a result of insecure employment opportunities available to many people, Han said.
Black Americans, in particular, are more likely to have unstable work schedules related to poor health, Han said.
The new study was published April 3 in the journal PLOS One.
Source: PLOS One, News Release, April 3, 2024
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