Current work hours and coronary artery calcification (CAC): The Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

BACKGROUND: Long work hours may be associated with adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease. We investigated cross-sectional associations of current work hours with coronary artery calcification (CAC). METHODS: Participants (n = 3046; 54.6% men) were from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. The number of hours worked in all jobs was obtained by questionnaire and CAC from computed tomography. The probability of a positive CAC score was modeled using log-binomial regression. Positive scores were modeled using analysis of covariance and linear regression. RESULTS: Sixteen percent of the sample worked over 50 hours per week. The overall geometric mean CAC score was 5.2 +/- 10.0; 40% had positive scores. In fully-adjusted models, prevalence ratios were less than 40 hours: 1.00 (confidence interval [CI]: 0.88-1.12), 40:(ref), 41 to 49:1.13 (CI: 0.99-1.30), and >/=50:1.07 (CI: 0.94-1.23) and longer current work hours were not associated with higher mean CAC scores ( /=50:51.2 [CI: 40.5-64.8]; P = .686). CONCLUSIONS: Current work hours were not independently associated with CAC scores.