Psychosocial stress in nurses with shift work schedule is associated with functional gastrointestinal disorders

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of psychosocial problems and their associations with rotating shift work in the development of functional gastrointestinal disorders.

In this cross-sectional observation study, survey was administered to nurses and nurse assistants in a referral hospital. In addi-tion to demographic questions, subjects were asked to complete the Rome III Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Rome III Psychosocial Alarm Questionnaire.

Responses from 301 subjects were assessed. The overall prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia (FD) were 15.0% and 19.6%, respectively. Psychosocial alarms were prevalent in the nursing personnel (74.8% with alarm pres-ence and 23.3% with serious condition) and were more frequent among rotating shift workers (84.7% vs. 74.5% for alarm presence and 28.1% vs. 13.3% for serious condition). The prevalence of both IBS and FD significantly increased with psychoso-cial risk. An independent risk factor for IBS was serious psychosocial alarm (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 10.75; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.30-88.99; P = 0.028). Serious psychosocial alarm was an independent risk factor for FD (aOR, 7.84; 95% CI, 1.98-31.02; P = 0.003). Marriage (aOR 0.30; 95% CI, 0.09-0.93; P = 0.037) was associated with the decreased risk of FD.

The high prevalence of psychosocial stress among nurses who work rotating shifts is associated with the development of func-tional gastrointestinal disorders.(J Neurogastroenterol Motil 2014;20:516-522).