A 100 percent workload increases the risk of cancer
Published: Wednesday, Oct 2nd 2024, 08:10
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Full-time employees have an increased risk of cancer. As researchers from the University of Fribourg have shown in a new study, employees with a 100 percent workload are more likely to develop cancer than people with other career paths. The reasons for this are still unclear.
However, this is even more the case for women, as the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) announced on Wednesday. The SNSF supported the study, which has now been published in the journal "Scientific Reports".
According to the study, women who are employed full-time have a significantly higher risk of developing cancer than women who look after the household and children full-time. However, self-employed men are also less likely to develop cancer than employed men.
12,500 people analyzed
The researchers came to this conclusion by analyzing the career paths of over 12,500 women and men born between 1915 and 1945 from 14 European countries. They found eight different forms of employment among the women studied. These included, for example, "predominantly full-time employed", "predominantly active in household and care", "full-time employed and then predominantly in household and care" or "predominantly unemployed".
In contrast, the forms of employment among the men surveyed were more standardized. The researchers were only able to divide the forms of employment into the two categories "predominantly full-time employed" and "predominantly self-employed".
Explanations are being sought
According to the SNSF, study leader Rose van der Linden suspects that the increased cancer risk is linked to behaviors that are more common among full-time workers. However, the results have been adjusted for known cancer risk factors such as alcohol, smoking, body mass index, diet and lack of exercise. It must therefore be a different behavior.
The fact that the effect was stronger in women than in men could be due to the fact that the working women were exposed to more stress than the men, suspects van der Linden. It is also possible that they did less satisfying work, which was more likely to lead to depression, or that they had to cope with an unhealthy combination of work and housework.
The reason for the lower cancer risk among self-employed men than employed men can also only be guessed at. "We can speculate that the self-employed are more motivated to look after their health because they are more likely to lose their job if they fall ill," said the researcher.
These questions are now to be clarified in further studies.
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