ArticleJournal of epidemiology2024
Long Working Hours, Work-life Imbalance, and Poor Mental Health: A Cross-sectional Mediation Analysis Based on the Sixth Korean Working Conditions Survey, 2020-2021.
Article in Journal of epidemiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- The association between occupational categories, working hours, and depression: A cross-sectional study in the United States.Medicine · 2026Article
- Perceived Sleep Quality as a Mediator Between Occupational Stress and Depression: The Moderating Role of Work Engagement.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Article
- Occupational stress (KOSS®19): scale development and validation in the Korean context.Annals of occupational and environmental medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere has been growing concern about the negative mental health impact of long working hours and overwork. Our study examined how work-life imbalance (WLI) could be a mediator between working hours and poor mental well-being.
methodsWe included 34,968 individuals from a nationwide cross-sectional survey in Korea. Self-reported working hours per week were collected, and mental health was assessed using the World Health Organization (WHO)-5 Well-Being Index. Counterfactual-based mediation models were employed to disentangle the total effects into a direct effect (work hour - poor mental health) and an indirect effect (work hour - WLI - poor mental health).
resultsOut of 34,968 participants, 52.6% worked 35-40 hours/week, 20.0% worked 41-48 hours/week, 11.7% worked 49-54 hours/week, and 15.6% worked ≥55 hours/week. The odds ratios (ORs) of the total impact of working hours on poor mental health were 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.16) for 41-48 hours/week, 1.28 (95% CI, 1.17-1.39) for 49-54 hours/week, and 1.60 (95% CI, 1.48-1.74) for ≥55 hours/week in comparison to 35-40 hours/week. The ORs of the indirect effects were 1.04 (95% CI, 1.03-1.05) for 41-48 hours/week, 1.08 (95% CI, 1.07-1.09) for 49-54 hours/week, and 1.14 (95% CI, 1.12-1.16) for ≥55 hours/week, accounting for 51%, 31%, and 28% of the total effects, respectively.
conclusionOur findings suggest that WLI can partially mediate the association of long working hours with mental health deterioration. Policy efforts are required to mitigate the adverse mental health effects of overwork.
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