The interplay of sleep duration, working hours, and obesity in Korean male workers: The 2010-2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The purpose of this study was to clarify the odds ratio for association between working hours and obesity in Korean male wage workers and investigate the role of sleep duration. This study is a cross-sectional one using large-scale national data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between 2010 and 2015 to evaluate 2,592 male wage workers (between the ages of 19 and 60 years). Obesity was defined as 25kg/m(2) or more and working hours per week were categorized into <40, 40-49, 50-59, and >= 60 hours. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the odds ratio for association between working hours and obesity, after controlling for age, education, income, marital status, smoking, drinking, physical activity, daily energy intake, sleep duration, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, work schedule, and job category. Next, to study the mediating effect of sleep duration on the association between working hours and obesity, an analysis was performed using the Baron and Kenny method and the Sobel test. Results showed that workers with 50 to 59 hours had 1.4 times higher odds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4, confidence interval [CI]: 1.11-1.85) of obesity and workers with 60 hours or more had 1.4 times higher odds (OR = 1.4, CI: 1.06-1.90) of obesity than workers with less than 40 hours. Sleep was found to have a mediating effect on the association between working time and body mass index. Therefore, the results of this analysis suggest that practitioners should identify potential factors such as working time and sleeping time when preventing work-related obesity.

Automated summary

This study examined the odds ratio for the association between working hours and obesity in Korean male wage workers, finding that those working 50-59 hours per week and 60 hours or more had higher odds of obesity compared to those working less than 40 hours. Furthermore, sleep was found to mediate the relationship between working hours and body mass index.