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Background: Although long working hours have been shown to be associated with the onset of cardiometabolic diseases, the clinical risk factor profile associated with long working hours remains unclear. We compared the clinical risk profile between people who worked long hours and those who reported being never exposed to long hours., Methods: A cross-sectional study in 22 health screening centres in France was based on a random population-based sample of 75 709 participants aged 18-69 at study inception in 2012-2016 (the CONSTANCES study). The data included survey responses on working hours (never, former or current exposure to long working hours), covariates and standardised biomedical examinations including anthropometry, lung function, blood pressure and standard blood-based biomarkers., Results: Among men, long working hours were associated with higher anthropometric markers (Body Mass Index, waist circumference and waist:hip ratio), adverse lipid levels, higher glucose, creatinine, white blood cells and higher alanine transaminase (adjusted mean differences in the standardised scale between the exposed and unexposed 0.02-0.12). The largest differences were found for Body Mass Index and waist circumference. A dose-response pattern with increasing years of working long hours was found for anthropometric markers, total cholesterol, glucose and gamma-glutamyltransferase. Among women, long working hours were associated with Body Mass Index and white blood cells., Conclusion: In this study, men who worked long hours had slightly worse cardiometabolic and inflammatory profile than those who did not work long hours, especially with regard to anthropometric markers. In women, the corresponding associations were weak or absent., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objectives: Poor psychosocial working conditions increase the likelihood of various types of morbidity and may substantially limit quality of life and possibilities to remain in paid work. To date, however, no studies to our knowledge have quantified the extent to which poor psychosocial working conditions reduce healthy or chronic disease-free life expectancy, which was the focus of this study., Methods: Data were derived from four cohorts with repeat data: the Finnish Public Sector Study (Finland), GAZEL (France), the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (Sweden) and Whitehall II (UK). Healthy (in good self-rated health) life expectancy (HLE) and chronic disease-free (free from cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes) life expectancy (CDFLE) was calculated from age 50 to 75 based on 64 394 individuals with data on job strain (high demands in combination with low control) at baseline and health at baseline and follow-up., Results: Multistate life table models showed that job strain was consistently related to shorter HLE (overall 1.7 years difference). The difference in HLE was more pronounced among men (2.0 years compared with 1.5 years for women) and participants in lower occupational positions (2.5 years among low-grade men compared with 1.7 years among high-grade men). Similar differences in HLE, although smaller, were observed among those in intermediate or high occupational positions. Job strain was additionally associated with shorter CDFLE, although this association was weaker and somewhat inconsistent., Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with job strain have a shorter health expectancy compared with those without job strain., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

Work stress is a risk factor for cardio-metabolic diseases, but few large-scale studies have examined the clinical profile of individuals with work stress. To address this limitation, we conducted a cross-sectional study including 43,593 working adults from a French population-based sample aged 18-72 years (the CONSTANCES cohort). According to the Effort-Reward Imbalance model, work stress was defined as an imbalance between perceived high efforts and low rewards at work. A standardized health examination included measures of anthropometry, lung function, blood pressure and standard blood-based biomarkers. Linear regression analyses before and after multivariable adjustment for age, socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms, health-related behaviours, and chronic conditions showed that work stress was associated with higher BMI, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, alanine transaminase, white blood cell count and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in men, and with higher BMI and white blood cell count in women (differences 0.03-0.06 standard deviations, P < 0.05 between individuals with and without work stress). No robust associations were observed with lung function, haemoglobin, creatinine, glucose levels or resting blood pressure measures. This indicates that work stress is associated altered metabolic profile, increased systemic inflammation, and, in men, poorer liver function, which is a marker of high alcohol consumption.