Night shifts decreases women’s life span
A study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine recently found a negative correlation between working the night shift on a rotation basis and one’s life span. The study, conducted for 22 years of 75, 000 female registered nurses through the data from the Nurses’ Health Study found that women who have worked the night shift for five years or more tend to have shorter lifespan and are vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases. Meanwhile, those who have worked the night shift for 15 years tend to die from lung cancer.
11 % of those who worked the night shift for more than six years experienced shorter lifespan. Risk of developing cardiovascular diseases were 19 %h higher for those working the night shifts, while it is 23 % for those who did so for 15 years or more.
The study follows a similar one by the World Health Organization last year where it was found that working the night shift predisposes workers to slower brain functioning.
“These results add to prior evidence of a potentially detrimental relation of rotating night shift work and health and longevity,” associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Eva S. Schernhammer, M.D., Dr PH said.
“To derive practical implications for shift workers and their health, the role of duration and intensity of rotating night shift work and the interplay of shift schedules with individual traits (e.g., chronotype) warrant further exploration,” she added.
Category: Health alert, Top Story
