Industrial Shift Work : Decrease in Well-being and Specific Effects

Gastrointestinal disorders among shift workers

“…Dirken (15) carried out a survey study of around 2500 employees in several workshops and districts in the Netherlands. The aim of the study was to compare day and shift workers with respect to wellbeing.…”

Environments, People, and Health

“…Interruptions of these rhythms fr om such artificial time reorganizations as shift work have been reported to result in damage to worker performance and output (117)(118)(119)(120) and to be associated with increased accident rates (121), feelings of less well-being (122,123), increased rates of gastrointesti nal disorders (124)(125)(126)(127), neuropsychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety, and confusion (121,125,127,128), drug abuse (121,129), and sleep disturbances (124,126,130,131).…”

Forward versus Backward Shift Rotation

“…Research has in fact shown that transmeridian air travelers have a much easier time adjusting to westward travel ("phase delay" or forward rotation) as opposed to eastward travel ("phase advance" or backward rotation) (Klein, et al, 1972;Nauty and Adams, 1966;Klein and Wegmann, 1980). Based on this research, many authors have recommended that shift rotation schedules take advantage of this finding by constructing schedules with forward rotations to hasten adjustment to each new shift (Czeisler et al, A second and more popular reason PROCEEDINGS of the HUMAN FACTORS SOCIEW 33rd ANNUAL MEETING--1989 1982; Dirken, 1966;Ehret, 1983;Knauth and Rutenfranz, 1980;Coleman, 1986). Unfortunately, no single study has compared the patterns of adjustment or completeness of adjustment f o r a group of shiftworkers who have rotated in each direction with all other factors being equal.…”