Short rest, consecutive night shifts up risk of hypertension in hospital workers

Hospital workers with short intervals between shifts and those working consecutive night shifts are at higher risk of hypertension, a recent study has found.

Quick returns, defined as shift intervals of <11 hours, among shift-working hospital workers were associated with an increased risk of hypertension (hazard ratio [HR], 1.88, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.00–3.54), but consecutive night shifts were not. However, those with quick returns and 2–3 days of consecutive night shifts had a significantly higher risk of hypertension (HR, 3.33, 95 percent CI, 1.18–9.39). Workers with quick returns and ≥4 days of consecutive night shifts were also at increased risk (HR, 3.79, 95 percent CI, 1.22–11.76) compared with the reference group.

“Shift work is related to hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, and short shift intervals … are reported to be related to health problems, including sleep disturbance and fatigue,” the authors said. “However, its cardiovascular effect has rarely been examined.”

This study examined the relationship between quick returns, consecutive night shifts and hypertension risk in hospital workers. The authors analysed data obtained from a medical examination of 1,372 nonhypertensive shift workers in a hospital. The analyses included demographic factors (sex and age), lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol use, exercise and obesity) and work-related factors (working hours, shift work experience, consecutive night shifts and quick returns status). HR and 95 percent CIs were then estimated via multivariate Cox proportional hazard models.