Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the study analysed the impact of employment status and the number of hours worked on the weight of middle-aged women and found those who worked in excess of 35 hours were more likely to experience weight gain.
Researchers led by Dr. Nicole Au, from the Centre for Health Economics at Monash University, analyzed 9276 women aged 45–50 years using the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health for 1996 and 1998. The study found 55 per cent of the women gained weight over the two-year period. On average the women gained 1.5 per cent of their initial weight while extreme amounts of weight gain were also evident.