Long work hours and adiposity among police officers in a US northeast city.

Objective: To investigate the associations between long work hours and adiposity measures in police officers.

Methods: Participants included 408 officers from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study who were examined between 2004 and 2009. Total work hours were abstracted from payroll records and questionnaires. Analysis of variance and covariance models were used.

Results: Among male officers who worked the midnight shift, mean values of waist circumference and body mass index increased with longer work hours after adjustment for age, physical activity, energy intake, sleep duration, smoking status, police rank, activities after work (eg, child/family care, sports), and household income. Adiposity measures were not associated with work hours among women on any shift.

Conclusion: Working longer hours was significantly associated with larger waist circumferences and higher body mass index among male police officers working the midnight shift.