One Day of Work a Week Is Most 'Effective' Dose For Mental Health, Study Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Just one day of work per week is the most 'effective dose' to give the mental health benefits of paid employment, research suggests. A study indicated that the risk of mental health problems reduces by 30% when people move from unemployment or stay-at-home parenting into paid work of eight hours or less per week. But researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Salford found no evidence that working any more than eight hours provided further boosts to well-being. The researchers used data from a panel survey to examine how changes in working hours were linked to mental health and life satisfaction in more than 70,000 UK residents between 2009 and 2018. They controlled for characteristics including age, children, longstanding illness and household income. The study suggests that to get the mental well-being benefits of paid work, the most 'effective dose' is only around one day a week -- as anything more makes little difference. The research has been published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

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