It has been reported that chances of suffering a stroke can increase if one stays late at office. This increase could be there even with a few hours of extra work. Data collected from approximately 500,000 men and women from the US, Australia and Europe revealed this.

As per the study, longer hours of work lead to more chances of a stroke. Risk level of stroke was compared with those working for a 35 to 40-hour week. The study associated work of 41 to 48 hours a week with a 10% increase of risk.

As per experts, working 49 to 54 hours led to increased chances of a stroke; the chances increased by 27%.

The hardest grafters were also having 13% increased risk of suffering a stroke. Scientists made use of a meta-analysis technique in order to come up with findings from 25 studies.

According to lead author Professor Mika Kivimaki, from University College London, “The pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed us to investigate the association between working hours and cardiovascular disease risk with greater precision than has previously been possible”.

Kivimaki said health professionals should know that working long hours is linked to a considerably increased risk of stroke, and possibly also coronary heart disease.

The findings have been published in The Lancet medical journal. According to the researchers, stress, unhealthy behaviors like high alcohol consumption and physical inactivity could also be involved in the increased chances of stroke.