Beliefs about age and physical demands of work in shiftworkers

The aim of the study was to investigate the differences between shiftworkers and non-shiftworkers in terms of several aspects of aging. Our interest was in particular focused on the differences observed in the assessment of subjective age, and physical, mental and social demands of work. Subjects were workers in a medical setting, 54 shiftworkers and 53 non-shiftworkers of the comparable chronological age. Subjective age measures included cognitive age, desired age and beliefs about age. The results showed that shiftworkers, compared to non-shiftworkers, reported being more physically tired by their work and that their work required more physical effort. No differences were found in reports of mental and social effort or tension produced by work. According to our data on subjective age measures, the subjects in either group felt approximately five years younger than their chronological age, desired to be ten years younger and believed that the person who is two years younger than them is most successful in its job. There were no differences between shift- and non-shiftworkers in terms of cognitive age, but shiftworkers were inclined to choose younger age as their desired age, and believed that younger people are more successful in their work.