Original article

Scand J Work Environ Health 2012;38(4):337-342    pdf

https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3297 | Published online: 16 Apr 2012, Issue date: 01 Jul 2012

Retrospective cohort study of the risk of impaired glucose tolerance among shift workers

by Oyama I, Kubo T, Fujino Y, Kadowaki K, Kunimoto M, Shirane K, Tabata H, Sabanai K, Nakamura T, Matsuda S

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of shift working on the risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

Methods This study comprised 6413 male employees (5608 daytime workers, 512 3-shift workers and 293 2-shift workers) whose work schedules remained constant during the follow-up period (mean follow-up period 9.9 years). IGT was defined as Hemoglobin A1c ≥5.9%. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the risk of developing IGT, after making adjustments for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure-time physical activity, body mass index (BMI) and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) at baseline. Analysis was additionally performed for a sub-cohort of 1625 workers with BMI of 20.0–25.0 kg/m2 that did not change by >2.0 kg/m2 during the follow up period.

Results The risk of developing IGT was significantly elevated among both 3-shift workers [hazard ratio (HR) 1.78, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.49– 2.14] and 2-shift workers (HR 2.62, 95% CI 2.17–3.17). Significant elevations of the risk were still observed at the additional analysis on the sub-cohort (3-shift work: HR 3.55, 95% CI 2.02–6.25; 2-shift work: HR 4.86, 95% CI 2.62–9.01).

Conclusions Both 2- and 3-shift workers were associated with a high risk factor of developing IGT compared to day workers. Moreover, 2-shift workers had a higher risk than 3-shift workers. The risk was observed even among workers whose body mass remained within the normal range.

This article refers to the following texts of the Journal: 2005;31(3):179-183  2005;31(1):30-35
The following articles refer to this text: 2012;38(4):291-297; 2015;41(6):569-578