Association between metabolic risk, oxidative stress and rotating shift work in a tertiary health care facility

Abstract

Healthcare industry employees, work in rotating shift duties to provide 24/7 services. Shift work is known to disrupt circadian rhythm and predispose the employees to metabolic risk and oxidative stress, subsequently increasing the risk for Non-Communicable Diseases. Present study attempts to evaluate this association. Aims: To evaluate the association between metabolic risk and oxidative stress among health care personnel working in rotating night-shift as compared to dayshift. Settings and design: Cross sectional study. Methods and materials: Eligible 124 employees [(night shift (61), Day shift (63)] working in a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru were randomly selected and tested for anthropometric and laboratory parameters pertaining to metabolic risk and oxidative stress and categorized accordingly using standard criteria. Statistical tests (student t-test) were applied to test for association between shift work, metabolic risk and oxidative stress. Results: Metabolic risk and Oxidative stress were significantly higher in rotating night shift workers as compared to day shift (p < 0.001) and (p < 0.017) respectively. Conclusion: Rotating night shift work is associated with increase in metabolic risk and oxidative stress and there is a need to consider this enhanced risk during periodical medical examination and employee health interventions. There is a need for further research to quantify risk for metabolic risk and understand this association in other occupations as well.

Relationship between shift work and age-related macular degeneration: a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010–2012)

“…The etiopathological mechanism of how shift work leads to AMD has not been identified, although previous studies have shown the association between shift work and oxidative stress [ 10 11 12 13 14 15 ], which is a known risk factor for AMD [ 28 29 30 31 ]. ROS are highly reactive molecules owing to their unpaired electrons, and ROS overproduction beyond an acceptable range of endogenous antioxidants is called oxidative stress [ 46 ].…”

“…Moreover, shift work is associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus (DM), metabolic syndrome, and breast cancer [ 9 ]. Recent studies have suggested that circadian rhythm changes can lead to oxidant-antioxidant imbalances and cause oxidative stress [ 10 11 12 13 14 15 ]. Sharifian et al [ 12 ] noted that total plasma antioxidant capacities were lower in night-shift workers and suggested that night shift work can act as an oxidative stressor.…”

“…Concurrently, studies have shown increased oxidative stress in the retina from donors' eyes with AMD [ 31 32 ]. Given that shift work is known to increase the risk of oxidant-antioxidant imbalances and cause oxidative stress [ 10 11 12 13 14 15 ], it may directly or indirectly affect the occurrence of AMD.…”

Shift Work and Metabolic Syndrome Updates: A Systematic Review

“…Alterations in the circadian cycle commonly have physiological consequences, for example, the night work with sleep deprivation can decrease the melatonin levels and may be linked to cardiometabolic and body alterations. 8 9 10 Sleep deprivation is a loss of night's sleep 11 or when the total sleep time per night is not enough, sleep is considered shorter than need. On average, short sleep lasts less than 5 or 6 hours a day.…”

Psychosocial issues and sleep quality among seafarers: a mixed methods study

“…Irregular working hours can disturb sleep and lead to some psychological problems in the long run [ 8 ]. Besides, working in rotating time frame is known as a risk factor for metabolic syndrome, oxidative stress, and some of other non-communicable diseases risk factors [ 9 ]. Several studies on seafarers’ physical health status have revealed that the prevalence of these risk factors such as metabolic syndrome is high among seafarers [ 10 , 11 ].…”