Objective This systematic review aims to summarize the available evidence to elucidate the effects of shift work, which includes night work, on body weight change. Methods A systematic search ...strategy using longitudinal studies was performed. Articles were included based on strict inclusion criteria; methodological quality was assessed by a standardized quality checklist. The results were summarized using a levels of evidence synthesis. Results The search strategy resulted in eight articles that met the inclusion criteria. Five of them were considered to be high- and three of them low-quality studies. Seven studies presented crude results for an association between shift work exposure and change in body weight: five high- and two low-quality studies. There was strong evidence for a crude relationship between shift work and body weight increase. Five studies presented weight-related outcomes adjusted for potentially relevant confounders (age, gender, bodyweight at baseline, and physical activity). Two studies found a significant difference between groups in the same direction. Consequently, the evidence for a confounders-adjusted relationship between shift work exposure and body weight was considered to be insufficient. Conclusions Strong evidence for a crude association between shift work exposure and body weight increase was found. In order to further clarify the underlying mechanisms, more and better high quality studies about this subject are necessary.
BackgroundRecently, irregular working hours have become controversial issues in Korea. The health impact of irregular working hours on the work-related musculoskeletal pain (MSP) is scarcely ...researched before. We sought to investigate the association between irregular working hours and work-related MSP among South Korean workers.MethodsThis study used data from the sixth Korean Working Conditions Survey in 2020. The prevalence of work-related MSP was analyzed using the χ2 test. A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between irregular working hours and work-related MSP. We conducted stratified analysis by gender, weekly working hours, and workers' control over their working hours. We calculated the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of work-related MSP for irregular working hours combined with weekly working hours.ResultsThe OR for work-related MSP was significantly higher in the population with irregular working hours than in the population with regular working hours (OR: 1.43, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.29-1.58). Irregular and long (> 52 hours/week) working hours have the highest risk of work-related MSP in both genders (in men, OR: 3.48 95% CI: 2.53-4.78; in women, OR: 2.41 95% CI: 1.46-4.00).ConclusionsIrregular working hours were associated with work-related MSP in Korea. The association was magnified with long working hours. Reform of the Korean Labor Standards Act leading to increase irregular working hours may induce adverse health outcome.
Naval service can have a significant impact on the wellbeing of seafarers, and the operation of warships is highly dependent on the personnel on board. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge ...concerning the impact of seafarers' individual characteristics on their wellbeing in a naval environment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate individual characteristics of the naval personnel that may be associated with the amount of sleepiness, fatigue and stress responses experienced during shift work and irregular working hours in a naval environment.
The study took place on a Finnish Defence Forces' Navy missile patrol boat on which 18 crewmembers served as study participants. The measurement periods lasted two separate weeks (seven days and six nights) during shift work with two different watchkeeping systems (4:4, 4:4/6:6). The onboard measurements consisted of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, salivary stress hormones, cognitive tests (Sustained Attention to Response Task and N-back Task) and heart rate variability.
Participants of older ages or with a longer history in naval service were associated with a greater amount of sleepiness, fatigue and stress responses on board. On the contrary, increased physical activity and a higher level of physical fitness, especially standing long jump, were associated with a lower amount of sleepiness, fatigue and fewer stress responses. In addition, an athletic body composition together with a healthy lifestyle may be beneficial, considering the stress responses on board.
The present results are well in line with the previous literature regarding shift work and irregular working hours. The results highlight the importance of regular physical activity and good physical fitness during service in the naval environment.
A considerable percentage of flight crew reports to be fatigued regularly. This is partly caused by irregular and long working hours and the crossing of time zones. It has been shown that persistent ...fatigue can lead to health problems, impaired performance during work, and a decreased work-private life balance. It is hypothesized that an intervention consisting of tailored advice regarding exposure to daylight, optimising sleep, physical activity, and nutrition will lead to a reduction of fatigue in airline pilots compared to a control group, which receives a minimal intervention with standard available information.
The study population will consist of pilots of a large airline company. All pilots who posses a smartphone or tablet, and who are not on sick leave for more than four weeks at the moment of recruitment, will be eligible for participation.In a two-armed randomised controlled trial, participants will be allocated to an intervention group that will receive the tailored advice to optimise exposure to daylight, sleep, physical activity and nutrition, and a control group that will receive standard available information. The intervention will be applied using a smartphone application and a website, and will be tailored on flight- and participant-specific characteristics. The primary outcome of the study is perceived fatigue. Secondary outcomes are need for recovery, duration and quality of sleep, dietary and physical activity behaviours, work-private life balance, general health, and sickness absence. A process evaluation will be conducted as well. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at three and six months after baseline.
This paper describes the development of an intervention for airline pilots, consisting of tailored advice (on exposure to daylight and sleep-, physical activity, and nutrition) applied into a smartphone application. Further, the paper describes the design of the randomised controlled trial evaluating the effect of the intervention on fatigue, health and sickness absence. If proven effective, the intervention can be applied as a new and practical tool in fatigue management. Results are expected at the end of 2013.
Netherlands Trial Register: NTR2722.
In today's Europe, only 24 per cent of the labor force always works regular daytime hours. The aim of the current study was to explore conceptualizations of food and meals in relation to irregular ...working hours. The participants were eight bus drivers in city traffic and six assistant nurses in geriatric care. The data collection comprised participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis of interview data showed that the main element in the participants' conceptualization was the importance of safety and confidence in their choices, which was managed partly within the content of food and meals: i.e. judgment of healthiness, food safety, freshness and taste, and partly within the structure of meals: i.e. management of conditions for meals and opportunities to make informed choices. Employees take past experiences as well as visualizations of the future into consideration as their basis for forming a judgment about choices of food and meals during working hours. The responsibility for food and meals during working hours is to a great extent the employee's alone, despite the fact that the irregularity of the working hours is set by the employer.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Actual working hours of employees vary widely, especially in the transportation industry. We developed a tool, the RAS (Representation and Analysis Software), to ease the assessment of such irregular ...hours and the transfer of existing knowledge of proper schedule design to the problem of irregular hours. This article discusses several critical design questions that were addressed during software development in order for it to assess irregular work patterns, including the (1) importance, in spite of a lack of established definitions, of basic concepts like, e.g., night shift, (2) difficulty of modeling and adapting existing knowledge on proper design, and (3) large number of analytical methods and additional data beyond company schedule that are necessary to meet the needs of various research groups. This article describes how the RAS addresses these three issues by illustrating its application to the work schedule of a train driver involved in the Hinton train disaster.
Flight schedules of cabin crew involve early starts, long working hours, night flights, and the crossing of time zones, all of which might contribute to the risk of onboard occupational accidents. ...Because it is unclear if cumulative flight schedule exposure affects the incidence of occupational accidents, the objective of this study is to examine this association among cabin crewmembers.
Data from the 5-yr historic MORE cohort was used. The study population consisted of 6311 cabin crewmembers. For each employee, all flight schedules from 2005 to 2008 and registered occupational accidents in 2009 were collected. The association between the cumulative exposure to different types of flights and the occurrence of occupational accidents was determined using logistic regression analyses.
In 2009, 289 cabin crewmembers reported at least 1 occupational accident. The adjusted logistic regression models showed that the number of short-haul flights during the period 2005-2008 was positively associated with the occurrence of occupational accidents in 2009. Less exposure to long-haul flights was also associated with reporting an occupational accident.
The results of this study suggest that cumulative exposure to short-haul flights is associated with an increased risk for occupational accidents among cabin crewmembers. This increased risk may be caused by the specific characteristics of short-haul flights. Future research should focus on possible underlying mechanisms, such as fatigue accumulation, and on the influence of adjustments to short-haul schedules. Airline companies can increase their focus on the short-haul operation in order to reduce onboard accidents.
In Europa arbeiten heute nur noch 24 Prozent der Arbeitskräfte zu regulären Tageszeiten. Gegenstand der hier berichteten Studie war es, Vorstellungen von Essen und Mahlzeiten für Beschäftigte zu ...untersuchen, die außerhalb dieser regulären Zeiten tätig sind. Hierzu wurden Feldbeobachtungen durchgeführt und acht Busfahrer/innen und sechs geriatrische Pflegekräfte mittels halb-strukturierter Interviews befragt. Die Analyse der Interviewdaten ergab, dass Vorstellungen von Sicherheit und Vertrauen von zentraler Bedeutung waren, die teilweise die Mahlzeiten als solche betrafen (also Themen wie gesundes Essen, vertrauenswürdiges Essen, Frische und Geschmack), teilweise die Organisation von Mahlzeiten (Rahmenbedingungen, Möglichkeiten, gut informiert Wahlen zu treffen). Dabei gingen rückliegende Erfahrungen und zukünftige Erwartungen in die Konzept- und Urteilsbildung zu Essens- und Mahlzeitwahlen ein. Im Falle irregulärer Arbeitszeiten verantworten Arbeitnehmer/innen diese Entscheidungen weitgehend alleine, auch wenn die irregulären Zeiten durch die Arbeitgeber/innen vorgegeben werden.
In today's Europe, only 24 per cent of the labor force always works regular daytime hours. The aim of the current study was to explore conceptualizations of food and meals in relation to irregular working hours. The participants were eight bus drivers in city traffic and six assistant nurses in geriatric care. The data collection comprised participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis of interview data showed that the main element in the participants' conceptualization was the importance of safety and confidence in their choices, which was managed partly within the content of food and meals: i.e. judgment of healthiness, food safety, freshness and taste, and partly within the structure of meals: i.e. management of conditions for meals and opportunities to make informed choices. Employees take past experiences as well as visualizations of the future into consideration as their basis for forming a judgment about choices of food and meals during working hours. The responsibility for food and meals during working hours is to a great extent the employee's alone, despite the fact that the irregularity of the working hours is set by the employer.
El la Europa de hoy, solo el 24 por ciento de la fuerza de trabajo desarrolla sus actividades en horarios regulares. La meta del presente estudio fue explorar las conceptualizaciones sobre el alimento y las comidas en relación con los horarios irregulares de trabajo. Los participantes fueron ocho conductores de autobuses urbanos y seis asistentes de enfermería de un geriátrico. La recolección de datos comprendió observación participante y entrevistas semi estructuradas. El análisis cualitativo de los datos de las entrevistas mostró que el principal elemento en la conceptualización de los participantes fue la seguridad y confianza en sus elecciones, las cuales fueron conducidas en parte dentro de contenido del alimento y las comidas: por ejemplo, el juicio sobre lo saludable, el alimento seguro, la frescura y el sabor y, en parte, dentro de la estructura de la comida, esto es: manejo de las condiciones para las comidas y oportunidades de tomar decisiones informadas. Los empleados toman en cuenta las experiencias pasadas así como las visualizaciones del futuro como bases para formarse juicios sobre las elecciones del alimento y las comidas durante sus horas de trabajo. La responsabilidad por el alimento y las comidas durante las horas de trabajo recae en gran medida sólo en los empelados, a pesar del hecho de que la irregularidad de las horas de trabajo es fijada por el empleador.
Objective Shift work is associated with adverse health outcomes, and an unhealthy diet may be a contributing factor. We compared diet quantity and quality between day and shift workers, and studied ...exposure–response relationships regarding frequency of night shifts and years of shift work. Methods Cross-sectional general population data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands (EPIC-NL) cohort was used. Dietary intake was assessed in 1993–1997 among adults aged 20–70 years using a food frequency questionnaire. We calculated energy intake, the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and WHO-based Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI). In 2011–2014, we retrospectively identified 683 shift workers and 7173 day workers in 1993–1997. Using multivariable-adjusted linear regression analysis, we estimated regression coefficients (β) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of the differences in dietary intake between day and shift workers. Results Shift workers had a higher energy intake than day workers (β:56 kcal/d, 95% CI 10–101), and a higher consumption of grains, dairy products, meat and fish (P<0.05). The difference in energy intake was largest for shift workers with ≥5 night shifts/month. They consumed 103 kcal/d (95% CI 29–176) more than day workers. No associations were found with MDS and HDI. Conclusion Shift workers and particularly those with a high frequency of night shifts had a higher energy intake than day workers. Regardless of number of night shifts and years of shift work, shift workers had similar diet quality as day workers. This suggests that increased energy intake among shift workers may contribute to shift work-induced adverse health outcomes.
Objective Physical inactivity has been hypothesized as an underlying factor for the association between shift work and adverse health outcomes. We compared leisure-time and occupational physical ...activity and sedentary behavior between day, night, and non-night shift workers. Methods We identified 612 day workers, 139 night shift workers and 61 non-night shift workers aged 18–65 years (54% men) in two Danish studies: the New method for Objective Measurements of physical Activity in Daily living (NOMAD) and the Danish Physical ACTivity cohort with Objective measurements (DPhacto) between 2011–2013. Sedentary behavior, light, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were measured using an accelerometer. Physical activity was expressed as percentage of leisure and work time spent in each activity. Linear regression analyses were used to test differences in physical activity and sedentary behavior between day, night, and non-night shift workers. Results No differences in leisure-time sedentary behavior and physical activity were observed between day and shift workers (P>0.05). Non-night shift workers spent 7.2% 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.3–12.1) more time in occupational sedentary behavior than day workers and 5.9% (95% CI -10.1– -1.7) and 1.9% (95% CI-3.7– -0.2) less time in occupational light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, respectively. Compared to day workers, night shift workers spent 4.3% (95% CI 2.4–6.1) more time at work in uninterrupted sedentary periods of ≥30 minutes. Conclusions Shift workers had similar leisure-time physical activity patterns as day workers, but were more sedentary at work. Future research should elucidate whether occupational physical inactivity and sedentary behavior contributes to shift work-related adverse health effects.
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