A1510 The effect of long working hours and night work for mental health among employees in South Korea

Monday, March 19, 2012: 15:15
Isla Mujeres 2 (Cancun Center)
Inah Kim, Occupational Health, School Of Public Health, Yonsei University, Incheon, South Korea
Sin Ye Lim, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Kyunghee University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea
Hyun Joo Kim, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, South Korea
Kyung-ja June, Nursing, Soonchunnhyung University, Cheonan, South Korea
Jin-wook Park, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
So Yeon Kim, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Won June Jang, Occupational Medicine, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan, South Korea
Introduction
The annual working hours in Korea were 2,256 in 2008, which was the longest among OECD countries. Long working hours has known a risk factor of workers’ health like cardiovascular disease or work-related injuries. But the evidence about a relationship between working hour and mental health was not enough. The object of this study was to investigate the joint effect of working hour and night work for mental health.

Methods
This study used data collected from 4th Korea National Health and Nutirition Examination Survey (2007, 2008, and 2009). The final sample included 4,619 subjects who were full-time employees. The total weighted subjects were 22,863,915. We analysed the data by survey analysis using weighting considering the strata and cluster.

Results
The adjusted odds ratios for depressive symptom were 1.33 (95%CI=0.85-2.07) for 52-59 h/week and 1.83 (95%CI=1.36-2.46) for more than 60 h/week, respectively, compared with the reference group working under than 52 hours. Working in the night more than 52 h/week significantly increased the experience of depressive symptom (OR=1.97, 95%CI=1.16-3.33). However, the odds ratio among night workers working less than 52 h/week was 0.86 (95%CI=0.44-1.70), compared with the reference group working mainly in the daytime. The risk for suicidal ideation was increased for those who worked 52-59 hours per week (OR=1.47, 95%CI=0.98-2.22) and worked more than 60 h/week OR=1.83 (95%CI=1.40-2.39), after correction for covariate. Working in the night more than 52 h/week was associated with suicidal ideation (OR= 2.16, 95%CI=1.22-3.83). However, the odds ratio for suicidal ideation was 1.16 (95%CI=0.63-2.14) among night workers working less than 52 h/week.

Discussion
This study suggested that long working hours would be associated with the increases of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. And resaerchers need to consider the interaction between working hours and night work

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