Hard-working women should go home earlier to avoid this disease, says research

(CNN) — Here's a good reason for women to work less, ask for a raise or get their partners to pick up around the house more: If women work fewer hours, it'll lower their risk of diabetes, according to a study published Monday in the journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

Researchers looked at data from 7,065 Canadians who were tracked over 12 years. What they found was that women who consistently worked 45 hours or more a week had a 63 percent greater risk of diabetes compared with those who worked between 35 and 40 hours a week.

The effect was only slightly reduced when smoking, exercise, alcohol intake and body-mass index were taken into account.

Men who worked longer hours, on the other hand, did not face an increased risk of diabetes.

It's unclear why there is a gender difference in this risk, but it may involve what women do with their time off.

"If you think about all the unpaid work they do on their off-hours, like household chores for example, they simply do more than men, and that can be stressful, and stress negatively impacts your health," said study co-author Mahee Gilbert-Ouimet, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto who has been active in this field for 12 years.

Women who work longer hours also tend to be in lower-paying jobs than men.

"Even when men and women do similar work, women earn less. Of course, that would impact women's health. Think about the stress of working harder and getting less for it," Gilbert-Ouimet said. "It's important for us to study women. They are still underevaluated in most areas of health, and it's a real shame, because if we look closer, there are still big inequalities."

Studies have shown that men who work longer hours in jobs that pay less face a greater diabetes risk. Though some studies have labeled this theory "controversial," additional research seems to point to a connection between overwork and diabetes.