Workers who clocked more than 51 hours at the office each week were 29 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than those who worked 39 hours or less, a new study from California has found.
Nearly all past research linking long work hours and high blood pressure has been done among Asian workers, Dr. Haiou Yang of the University of California in Irvine and colleagues note in their report in the journal Hypertension.
The researchers also found that hypertension was more common among clerical and unskilled workers than among professionals. This "suggests that occupations requiring more challenging and mentally active work may have a protective effect against hypertension," Yang and his colleagues write.