Long work hours hinder cognitive function: study

Mar 20, 2009

Middle-aged employees who work long hours could see declines in their cognitive and reasoning performance, researchers found in a recent study.

The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health study analyzed the association between long work hours and cognitive function. From a pool of 2,214 full-time British civil servants, researchers conducted several short-term memory and vocabulary tests, as well as other cognitive tests. Employees who worked more than 55 hours per week had lower scores in both the vocabulary and reasoning tests than those who worked no more than 40 hours per week, according to study researchers.

The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 169, No. 5).