ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2009
Long working hours and cognitive function: the Whitehall II Study.
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effects of work on cognitive functions: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Can psychosocial work conditions protect against age-related cognitive decline? Results from a systematic review.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Strain and recovery activities over a week predict short-term changes in processing speed measured in everyday environments: A survey response-time study in workers from a large internet panel.Neuropsychology · 2026Article
- Changes in working hours and burnout levels among physicians: a cohort study.Human resources for health · 2026Article
- Dementia prevention requires moving beyond individual choice: the costs of effort and time intersect with social determinants of health.Neuroscience · 2025Review
- The predictive power of employment trajectories on cognition of older adults: Evidence from Chile.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Overwork and changes in brain structure: a pilot study.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2025Article
- Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Overwork Climate Scale.Industrial health · 2025Article
- Longitudinal study of disease severity and external factors in cognitive failure after COVID-19 among Indonesian population.Scientific reports · 2023Observational
- Do supportive work environments matter for minority aging? Work stress and subjective cognitive impairment among middle-age and older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adults.Acta psychologica · 2023Article
- Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Validation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) adapted for the whole day repeated measures context.Ergonomics · 2022Article
- Association between Changes in the Regularity of Working Hours and Cognitive Impairment in Middle-Aged and Older Korean Workers: The Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, 2008-2018.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Assessing Physicians' Recall Bias of Work Hours With a Mobile App: Interview and App-Recorded Data Comparison.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Association of mental demands in the workplace with cognitive function in older adults at increased risk for dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2021Article
- Examining the Interplay between Queerness and Teacher Wellbeing: A Qualitative Study Based on Foreign Language Teacher Trainers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Work Hours and Cognitive Function: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.Safety and health at work · 2020Article
- Association between Working Hours and Self-Rated Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Current work hours and coronary artery calcification (CAC): The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).American journal of industrial medicine · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This study examined the association between long working hours and cognitive function in middle age. Data were collected in 1997-1999 (baseline) and 2002-2004 (follow-up) from a prospective study of 2,214 British civil servants who were in full-time employment at baseline and had data on cognitive tests and covariates. A battery of cognitive tests (short-term memory, Alice Heim 4-I, Mill Hill vocabulary, phonemic fluency, and semantic fluency) were measured at baseline and at follow-up. Compared with working 40 hours per week at most, working more than 55 hours per week was associated with lower scores in the vocabulary test at both baseline and follow-up. Long working hours also predicted decline in performance on the reasoning test (Alice Heim 4-I). Similar results were obtained by using working hours as a continuous variable; the associations between working hours and cognitive function were robust to adjustments for several potential confounding factors including age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, physical diseases, psychosocial factors, sleep disturbances, and health risk behaviors. This study shows that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.