The influence of shift work on health behaviors and self-reported health status of nurses

Abstract

Introduction. Working conditions often involve employees’ exposure to factors having adverse effects on their health. Due to its nature, the nursing profession entails numerous risks, associated both with harmful factors and a work system itself.Aim. Aim of this study was to analyze the influence of a shift work system on self-reported health status and health behaviors of nurses.Material and methods. The study included 200 nurses employed in three Szczecin hospitals: the Independent Public Clinical Hospital no. 1, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Independent Public Clinical Hospital no. 2, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, and Independent Public Voivodeship Integrated Hospital. The research instruments were the Health Behavior Inventory (HBI) developed by Zygfryd Juczyński, and a self-developed questionnaire concerning sociodemographic and medical data.Results. When it comes to 76% of the nurses, they described their health status as good or very good. The majority of the respondents (54%) displayed a low level of health behaviors. The most common work-related complaints were sleep disorders (55%), headaches after return home from work (55%), irritation after return home from work (83%), skin problems (28%), back pains (76%), leg pain/fatigue (84%), and eating disorders (14%).Conclusions. 1. A work system had substantial effect on self-reported health status of the studied group of nurses. 2. The nurses working day shifts displayed a higher level of health behaviors than their counterparts working in a shift system. 3. A day/night shift work pattern correlated with a higher incidence of eating disorders.

Consequences of Shift Work and Night Work: A Literature Review

“…In terms of health, sleep and fatigue were the most studied variables in the literature (n = 27), with studies related to sleep predominating on the topic of fatigue [34,38,44,[55][56][57]. The second most referenced subcategory was lifestyles (n = 19), where eating habits stood out [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66], followed by physical exercise [66][67][68], alcoholism [67,69], smoking [67,68], and health behaviors [71,72]. The cardiovascular system references (n = 17) were divided into cardio-metabolic risk factors [65,[73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], hypertension [81,[83][84][85], and heart rate [34,86].…”

“…The association between breast cancer [105][106][107][108][109][110] or prostate cancer [111,112] and work schedules was studied several times, representing a total of 10 references to oncological problems. Both the immune system [50,[115][116][117][118][119], as well as well-being and quality of life [69,71,[120][121][122][123], had six references each. The female reproductive system is mainly divided into studies related to miscarriage [127], menopause [128], and pregnancy [124][125][126].…”

Prevalence of sleep disturbances among emergency response team paramedics working in shift systems

“…Shift work increases the risk of cardiovascular and digestive system disorders, sleep disturbances, neuropsychiatric disorders, and chronic pain, and is related to a higher incidence of accidents at work and lower work satisfaction among employees. In the context of paramedics undertaking shift work, there is a limited number of health consequences documented [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”