Occupation and Obesity: Effect of Working Hours on Obesity by Occupation Groups

Abstract

Despite leveling off, United States is faced with high prevalence of obesity. Obesity epidemic is an important public health concern imposing pressures on social support schemes, leading to productivity losses and threatening quality of life of the people living with it. As occupations take up good portion of adult's daily life and have close relations with socio-economic factors and behavioral traits, understanding the relationships between occupations and obesity aids efforts fighting with the epidemic. In this respect, taking working hours into consideration, present study investigates the probability of being obese in 40 occupational groupings and identifies six occupation groups reducing the risk of obesity. This study is a first attempt to examine the effect of working hours on obesity by occupation groups in the United States.