Rotating night shifts may hamper healthy aging

Rotating night shift work is associated with a decreased probability of healthy aging among U.S. female nurses, according to a study published online May 4 in JAMA Network Open.

Hongying Shi, Ph.D., from the School of Public Health and Management at Wenzhou Medical University in China, and colleagues examined whether rotating night shift work is associated with healthy aging over 24 years of follow-up. The analysis included 46,318 participants in the Nurses' Health Study (aged 46 to 68 years in 1988).

The researchers found that compared with women who never worked rotating night shifts, the odds of achieving healthy aging decreased significantly with increasing duration of night shift work (for one to five years of night shift work: adjusted odds ratio, 0.96 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.89 to 1.03]; six to nine years: adjusted odds ratio, 0.92 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.79 to 1.07]; ≥10 years: adjusted odds ratio, 0.79 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.69 to 0.91]). Results were similar across ages and lifestyles.

"Because an increasing proportion of the working population is involved in rotating night shift work, these findings further highlight the importance of understanding the association of night shift work with human health," the authors write. "Additional studies are warranted to confirm our findings in men and other ethnic populations."

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