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Dynamic blood pressure changes and recovery under different work shifts in young women
Shih-Hsiang Lo1, Chiau-Suong Liau, Jing-Shiang Hwang
1Department of Internal Medicine, Zhongxing Branch of Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
Some studies have reported that shift work can affect blood pressure (BP), but few have studied recovery from BP changes occurring during different shifts.
Methods:
We recruited 16 young female nurses working rotating shifts and six working the regular day shift. All received repeated ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) during their workdays and following day off.
Results:
Our linear mixed-effect model showed that both systolic and diastolic BPs were significantly decreased during sleeping period and significantly increased while on working period, on a work day, but increased during sleeping period after a night shift or evening shift. BP measurements that changed after evening shift usually returned to baseline on consecutive off-duty day after day shift, but they did not completely return to baseline after a night shift (P < 0.05). We also found 69% of those working rotating shifts had at least changed once in dipper/nondipper status. The rates of change in dipper/nondipper status between work day and off-duty day were 33, 44, 50, and 38% for nurses worked in outpatient clinic, night shift, evening shift, and day shift, respectively.
Conclusion:
Shift work is significantly associated with BP and possibly dipper/nondipper status in young female nurses. Except for those working night shifts, BP levels returned to baseline the off-duty day after day shift. We recommend that potential influence of shift work be considered when evaluating a person's BP.
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