Women's workaholism leads to obesity

Middle-aged women who spend long periods of time in the office (more than 35 hours a week) are at risk of gaining excess weight or becoming obese. Employees of the Australian Center for Health Economics at Monash University came to this conclusion after analyzing the influence of employment and the number of hours worked on the weight of office employees.

Scientists led by Dr. Nicole Oh observed the health of 9,276 women aged 45 to 50 years. During the study, they used data from previous work from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (1996-1998). As a result, experts found that 55% of women gained weight within two years (36% of them did not exercise). On average, women gained 1.5% of their original weight, but there were significantly more obese women.

Scientists noted that the problem concerns office workers who pay insufficient attention to their health and do not engage in fitness. “More than 60% of Australian women are now obese or overweight, representing a serious public health problem,” the author comments.

Experts noted that women who work more than 49 hours a week are more likely to smoke and drink alcohol - in 65% of cases this is fraught with the development of dangerous diseases.

The study results were published in the International Journal of Obesity.