Cross-sectional study of the association between long working hours and pre-diabetes: 2010-2017 Korea national health and nutrition examination survey

Objective Long working hours have been shown to raise the risk of various health outcomes. However, epidemiological evidence has shown inconsistent result in relation to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the association between long working hours and pre-diabetes among non-diabetic adults remains largely unexplored. We thus aimed to investigate whether long working hours were linked with pre-diabetes as determined by glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) level. Design Cross-sectional survey. Participants This study included 6324 men and 4001 women without diabetes from the 2010 to 2017 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Primary outcome measures The study outcome of interest was pre-diabetes, defined as HbA1c values 5.7% to 6.4% Results Logistic regression was performed to obtain the ORs for pre-diabetes according to categories of work hour (40 hours/week, 41 to 52 hours/week, >52 hours/week), after adjusting for relevant covariates. Of the 10 325 eligible participants, 2261 (34.4%) men and 1317 (31.0%) women had pre-diabetes. No statistically significant relationship was found for women. In men, extended working hours (>52 hours per week) was associated with an increased likelihood of pre-diabetes, after adjustment for age, educational attainment, monthly household income, lifestyle related factors, perceived stress, family history of diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and other covariates (adjusted OR=1.22; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.46). In the subgroup analysis by occupational categories, the association was only apparent among men in blue-collar worker groups. Conclusion Extended working hours were significantly related to pre-diabetes in men, with no statistically significant association observed for women. Further subgroup analysis by occupational categories revealed that the increased odds of pre-diabetes associated with long working hours was only apparent among male workers of blue-collar occupations and shift workers.