The crossover effect of spouses’ long working hours on depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation

To examine the association between spouses’ weekly working hours (SWWH) and psychological symptoms such as depressive symptom and suicidal ideation. We used data from the fourth and fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2012). We collected information about general characteristics, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and working hours. After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, a sample of 8,056 house units was used for analysis. A multiple logistic regression was conducted to investigate the association between SWWH and depressive symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation, to estimate the odds ratio (OR). The relationship between SWWH and psychological symptoms were linear in husbands, and J-shaped in wives. ORs for husbands’ depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation increased according to increase in SWWH (p-values for trend were 0.0045 and <0.001, respectively). Crude ORs for wives’ depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation decreased until SWWH of 40 to 49 hours, but increased after SWWH of 40 to 49 hours (all p-values were below 0.01). Similar trends were observed after adjustment for age, obesity, household income, and one’s own weekly working hours, up to 1.33 and 1.57 in husbands, and 1.29 and 1.32 in wives, respectively. SWWH is negatively associated with mental health.