New study reveals that long hours of work increases depression in women

According to a recent study conducted by a team which analyzed the data collected by Understanding Society, the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) which tracks the health of around 40000 household in UK, women who work for more than 55 hours or more per week are in higher risk of depression. They have also found that continuous working weekends can also induce the same risk in both men and women

The team came to this conclusion by looking at data collected from

With the data drawn from over 23,000 men and women, the study found a significant difference in the mental health of those women who worked more than 55 hours (weekends included) and those who worked the standard hours. Moreover, most of the women were also burdened with unpaid work at home and this made them work for even more time when compared with men, though the working hours (excluding the work at home) of men were generally longer than women.

Apart from the working hours, there were other factors which have induced a lower mental health in both the genders and this includes older workers, workers who smoke, those who earned the least, and those who had the least control at their jobs.

Though the research team explains that their findings do not establish the cause, the study can in fact trigger more companies to come up with policies that help in improving the mental health of the individuals.