Diabetes risk for shift workers
Wednesday December 7th, 2011
Women who work on rotating night shifts face a massively increased risk of developing diabetes, researchers warned today.
A
woman who spends more than 20 years doing shift work faces a 60 per cent
increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to findings reported
in PLoS Medicine.
And if she spends more than ten years on shifts, she faces a 40 per cent increased risk.
The findings come from an analysis of the fate of nearly 240,000 nurses in the USA.
Frank Hu and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, have been studying the nurses since 1976.
Writing in the journal Mika Kivimäki, from University College London, UK, David Batty from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and Christer Hublin from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland, say it will not be possible to prevent the problem by eliminating the 24/7 society.
They say it is possible that shift work is causing an increase in rates of diabetes.
They write: "Additional efforts to prevent type 2 diabetes among shift workers through promotion of healthy life styles, weight control and early identification and treatment of pre-diabetic and diabetic employees are needed."
They add: "Some modifications to shift work itself might also be feasible. Rotating shift work comprises a range of alternative schedule patterns, such as backward- and forward-rotating shift systems, and the proportion of night and early morning shifts varies."
Tags: Diabetes | Europe | General Health | North America | Nursing & Midwifery | UK News
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