Americans in poorly paid and menial jobs that work 55 hours or more a week are 30 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared to those working 35 to 40 hours.

Researchers found this conclusion held true even after taking into account health behaviors such as smoking, physical activity, and other risk factors including age, sex and obesity.

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This link remained solid after excluding shift work, which increases the risk of obesity and developing Type 2 diabetes.

The thought provoking study that came to these conclusions involved over 220,000 men and women in the U.S. and three other advanced countries. It was conducted by the University College London and published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of data that examined the effects of long working hours on Type 2 diabetes. Data was derived from four published studies and 19 studies with unpublished data involving 222,120 men and women from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Japan. These people were followed for an average of 7.6 years.

"Although working long hours is unlikely to increase diabetes risk in everyone, health professionals should be aware that it is associated with a significantly increased risk in people doing low socioeconomic status jobs," said Mika Kivimaki, Professor of Epidemiology at University College London.

He noted the pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed researchers to investigate the association between working hours and diabetes risk with greater precision than has been previously possible,

Researchers, however, said more studies are needed to identify the underlying mechanisms for the association between long working hours and diabetes in people doing low socioeconomic status jobs.

Possible explanations for this link include working disruptive schedules that leave little time to take part in behaviors good for individual health such as sleeping and exercise.

Diabetes mellitus Type 2 is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar in the context of insulin resistance and lack of insulin. The classic symptoms are frequent urination, excess thirst and constant hunger. Type 2 diabetes makes up about 90% of cases of diabetes.