Working nights regularly over a period of years significantly increases the risk of heart disease, according to a major international study published yesterday.
Researchers found that a nurse who worked nights for ten years faced an 18% increased risk of disease.
They say the risks of night working might be reduced by screening employees for their "chrono" type to establish if they are suited for it. About 15% of the population are thought to be evening people.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the risk rapidly decreased when nurses ceased working nights.
Nurses were deemed to be working nights regularly when they undertook three or more night shifts a month as part of rotating shiftwork.
Researchers from Vienna, Austria, studied the fate of some 240,000 nurses in the USA.
Researcher Eva Schernhammer, of the MedUni Wien, said: "Approximately 15% of the population are evening types and 20 % or more are morning types. The rest are mixed types."
Association between rotating night shift work and risk of coronary heart disease among women JAMA 26 April 2016 [abstract]
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