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Women are more likely to snack on junk food, smoke, cease exercising and consume caffeine when they stay late at work, a study published late Wednesday has found. By contrast, men who work longer hours do not engage in these unhealthy practices, the British report found.

Researchers did not analyze why men and women respond differently to working long hours. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Daryl O'Connor, said it was likely that women were adversely affected by long hours because they had more obligations outside the office.

“Women are more likely to be the primary caretaker of their family, and spend more time managing the household. When they work more than nine hours a day, something has to give. And what gives is going to the gym, and eating healthily.”

The report, published by Britain's Economic and Social Research Council, also studied the behaviour of participants who eat for psychological comfort, known as emotional eaters. These people feel anxious about themselves and turn to food as an escape from self-awareness, Dr. O'Connor said. The study found that both men and women eat to calm their anxieties, but women were more likely to be emotional eaters.

“One of the reasons that women are eating high-sugar, high-fat food is because a higher proportion are emotional eaters,” said Dr. O'Connor, a professor of psychology at the Institute of Psychological Studies, University of Leeds.

The two-year study analyzed the eating patterns of 422 participants, 193 male and 229 female, whose mean age was 40.3 years. Participants were asked to keep diaries documenting what they ate, and their daily stresses. The four researchers also looked at the personalities of the subjects, their social supports and their psychological work environment.

“Our findings are disturbing in that they show stress produces harmful changes in diet and leads to harmful eating behaviours,” Dr. O'Connor said. “Women are more at risk from working long hours because they are more likely to eat high fat, high sugar foods in response to anxiety and stress.”