[Shift work and health problems in workers]

A comparative study of health complaints was performed in a large oil-refinery among a total of 609 shift workers and 97 non-shift workers. Health complaints were assessed on the basis of the workers' medical records, where details of every visit to the physician over a period of five years were noted, and as subjective health complaints obtained by a questionnaire. In general, the non-shift workers visited the physician more often than the shift workers. However, when visits to the physician for special groups of diseases were considered taking into account the overall number of visits, and especially when the subjective health complaints were compared between the two groups of workers, the results indicated that the shift workers were at greater risk of some diseases, especially the digestive ones.