Working hours and depression in the HEAF cohort
Working hours and depression in the HEAF cohort
Background: long working hours and unemployment adversely affect mental health. Modern policies aim to keep adults working to older ages.
Aims: to explore the bidirectional association between working hours and depression among older workers.
Methods: we used data from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) longitudinal study of adults aged 50-64 years recruited from English general practices. Participants completed baseline (2013-14) and annual (until 2019) questionnaires, including questions about working hours (<20, 20 to <35, 35-40, >40 h/week) and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (scores ≥16 used to define depression). The association between working hours and incident depression, and the reverse association between baseline depression and reducing working hours, were explored using Poisson regression.
Results: of 3866 HEAF participants in paid work without baseline depression, 32% developed incident depression. Those who were financially comfortable and working <20 h (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.47, 95% CI 1.11-1.95) and those of intermediate financial status working 20-35 h (IRR 1.26, 95% CI 1.05-1.52) were at increased risk of depression. Among participants with depression at baseline, only men of intermediate financial status were more likely to decrease working hours (IRR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06-1.33) or stop working altogether.
Conclusions: incident depression was common in this older worker cohort and the risk varied by working hours and financial status. It is important to know more about reasons for leaving work in relation to depression to inform targeted strategies for supporting older adults to remain in work.
Tomic, D.
74e9a42f-5916-4968-ae38-c734f913841c
D'Angelo, S.
b6755c92-c646-4417-ae51-436ae5f196fd
Walker-Bone, K.
ad7d1336-ed2c-4f39-ade5-da84eb412109
Tomic, D.
74e9a42f-5916-4968-ae38-c734f913841c
D'Angelo, S.
b6755c92-c646-4417-ae51-436ae5f196fd
Walker-Bone, K.
ad7d1336-ed2c-4f39-ade5-da84eb412109
Tomic, D., D'Angelo, S. and Walker-Bone, K.
(2025)
Working hours and depression in the HEAF cohort.
Occupational medicine (Oxford, England), [kqaf100].
(doi:10.1093/occmed/kqaf100).
Abstract
Background: long working hours and unemployment adversely affect mental health. Modern policies aim to keep adults working to older ages.
Aims: to explore the bidirectional association between working hours and depression among older workers.
Methods: we used data from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) longitudinal study of adults aged 50-64 years recruited from English general practices. Participants completed baseline (2013-14) and annual (until 2019) questionnaires, including questions about working hours (<20, 20 to <35, 35-40, >40 h/week) and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (scores ≥16 used to define depression). The association between working hours and incident depression, and the reverse association between baseline depression and reducing working hours, were explored using Poisson regression.
Results: of 3866 HEAF participants in paid work without baseline depression, 32% developed incident depression. Those who were financially comfortable and working <20 h (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.47, 95% CI 1.11-1.95) and those of intermediate financial status working 20-35 h (IRR 1.26, 95% CI 1.05-1.52) were at increased risk of depression. Among participants with depression at baseline, only men of intermediate financial status were more likely to decrease working hours (IRR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06-1.33) or stop working altogether.
Conclusions: incident depression was common in this older worker cohort and the risk varied by working hours and financial status. It is important to know more about reasons for leaving work in relation to depression to inform targeted strategies for supporting older adults to remain in work.
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kqaf100
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Accepted/In Press date: 25 August 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 October 2025
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 506763
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/506763
ISSN: 0962-7480
PURE UUID: 339a295c-e74d-4a9d-85c9-b17e9875f25e
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Date deposited: 18 Nov 2025 17:38
Last modified: 19 Nov 2025 02:36
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Author:
D. Tomic
Author:
S. D'Angelo
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