Sleep Patterns of Firefighters with Shift Working Schedules in Seoul Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Background and ObjectiveaaFirefighters suffer from irregular and inadequate sleep, often due to their shift work schedule. The purpose of this study was to investigate the shift work schedules and their effects on the quality of sleep in Korean firefighters. MethodsaaThis study included firefighters in the Seoul Metropolitan area, who participated in the "Firefighters' Healing Camp" and answered questionnaires for their shift work schedules and sleeprelated symptoms. Among 180 participating firefighters, 110 subjects completed detailed sleep questionnaires, which included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Epworth Sleepiness Score, the Stanford Sleepiness Score, the Fatigue Severity Scale, and the Berlin Questionnaire, and provided details of their shift work schedule and duration for the last 3 weeks. resultsaaAmong 110 respondents, 78.2% self-reported sleep disturbance and approximately 60% of the participating firefighters had a certain degree of insomnia. Furthermore, more than 50% of the firefighters complained of excessive daytime sleepiness, with 31.8% having a risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The firefighters in the frequent night-shift (NS) working pattern (5 or more days for 3 weeks), showed significantly higher Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index global score than those in the infrequent (less than 5 days) NS group (8.8 ± 3.6 vs. 6.7 ± 2.7, p = 0.014). However, the frequent NS working pattern was not associated with excessive daytime sleepiness or OSA risk. ConclusionsaaThe participating firefighters reported a high prevalence of various sleep problems. Frequent NS working may be responsible for poor sleep quality in firefighters. Sleep Med res 2017;8(2):68-75

Correlation between quality of life and sleep quality of military firefighters

“…Regarding the quality of sleep, it has an important function for the individual and its deprivation can cause disturbances in intellectual and mental performance capacity and mood stabilization that can be avoided through prevention. The data analysis showed a poor evaluation of the quality of sleep in most of the firefighters, data similar to research carried out with North American 26 , Portugal 27 , Seoul 28 and Iran 20 firefighters.…”

Sleep disturbances and related occupational diseases in Ukrainian firefighters

“…The statistics show that 37.2 percent of French [24,27] and 59 percent of American firefighters are dissatisfied with the quality of their sleep [4,5,11,12]. Among the firefighters from the Seoul Metropolitan Area (South Korea) 78.8 percent of firefighters have sleep problems [17]. In China 70 percent of firefighters complain about low quality of their main sleep [13].…”

“…Based on the current researches in the field of sleep medicine [1,10,12,17,23,26,27,28] scientists state that sleep deprivation, as one of the main occupational factors in firefighting, can contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease in rescue workers, as well as certain cancer diseases, diabetes and depressive mood disorders [28]. International organizations and unions of professional firefighters [2,13,16,29] show that more often than civilians, firefighters are exposed to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, depressive mood disorders and suicidal attempts.…”

Shifted Firefighter Health Investigation by Personal Health Insurance Record in Taiwan

“… 6 Table 1 lists recent studies on occupational injuries that are related to firefighters and shift rotations. These mainly involve sleeping, 14 , 15 depression and stress, 16 , 17 cognitive functions, 18 cancer, 19 , 20 hypertension, 21 physical activity and obesity, 22–24 metabolic syndromes, 25 and injuries and musculoskeletal disorders. 26 , 27 According to the 2154 work injuries that were recorded from 2010 to 2015 in South Korea in reference, 28 the majority of injuries concerned the upper and lower back (25.3%).…”

“… Year Country Subjects Stuy Method Major Finding 16 2008 japan 1301 shift‐work firefighters. CES‐D; job dissatisfaction survey Workload, intergroup conflict, social support from a supervisor related to depressive symptoms and/or job dissatisfaction 14 2018 Iranian 60 shift work firefighters melatonin, sleepness Melatonin level change at 3:00 and 7:00 15 2017 Korea 110 shift work firefighters Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Epworth Sleepiness Score, the Stanford Sleepiness Score, the Fatigue Severity Scale, and the Berlin Questionnaire 60% of the participating firefighters had a certain degree of insomnia 17 2017 Finland firefighters Heart rate variability during shifts. Physiological load and psychological stress were temporarily high 18 2020 Poland 18 paramedics, 16 firefighters and 17 day worker EEG Higher amplitude of the P200 and P300 potential 19 2018 Danish 11,775 firefighters mortality ratios Death from stomach cancer increased 21 2016 USA 330 firefighters Blood pressure Sixteen 24-h shifts had 5.0 mmHg higher DBP 22 2016 …”