What are some of the detrimental health conditions associated with shift work?

What will be an ideal response?


What are some of the detrimental health conditions associated with shift work? The most prevalent health problems found are those related to the gastrointestinal system. For example, Costa (1996, p. 10) noted that shift workers often complain about digestive disorders such as "disturbances of appetite, irregularity of the bowel movements with prevalent constipation, dyspepsia, heartburn, abdominal pains, grumbling and flatulence.". More serious conditions such as chronic gastritis and peptic ulcers are also more prevalent. One reason suggested for the increased prevalence of gastrointestinal problems among shift workers is that they have less access to healthy and nutritional foods during the night shift. However, current evidence does not support this hypothesis. Therefore, GI vulnerability of shift workers is more likely due to other factors such as sleep deficits or circadian rhythm disruptions (Vener, Szabo, & Moore, 1989).

Shift work also seems to increase risk for cardiovascular disease. Boggild and Knutsson (1999) reviewed 17 relevant studies and estimated that shift workers have a 40% increased risk for cardiovascular disease than their day worker counterparts. For example, Kawachi et al. (1995) in the Nurses' Health prospective study of 79,109 female nurses found that long-term rotating shift work (i.e., 6 or more years) as compared to never working shifts conferred a 1.51 adjusted elevated risk of CHD. That is, the long-term rotating shift working nurses were one and a half times more likely to develop CHD.

Psychology

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Psychology