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[Behavior of blood pressure in 3 shift work of workers with level I WHO hypertension]
Insights
Shift work does not significantly increase blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. Even during night shifts, blood pressure remains stable, indicating no elevated health risk for these workers.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Hypertension Management
Context:
- Shift work is common and may affect cardiovascular health.
- Hypertension poses risks, especially in demanding work environments.
- Understanding blood pressure response during shift work is crucial for worker safety.
Purpose:
- To investigate the impact of shift work on blood pressure in hypertensive individuals.
- To assess whether shift work exacerbates hypertension or poses health risks.
- To determine if blood pressure stabilization or medication affects shift work's impact.
Summary:
- Blood pressure tests on 40 hypertensive shift workers showed no significant increase due to shift work across early, late, and night shifts.
- Systolic blood pressure decreased from early to night shifts in workers with satisfactory/unsatisfactory stabilization, while diastolic pressure remained constant.
- No significant differences in blood pressure were observed across different treatment groups (no medication, monotherapy, combined therapy).
Impact:
- Shift work does not appear to impair working capacity by increasing blood pressure in hypertensive individuals.
- No increased health risk regarding blood pressure response during shift work, including night work, is evident for individuals with controlled hypertension.
- Findings suggest that shift work can be managed safely for hypertensive workers if blood pressure is adequately controlled.
Abstract:
Blood pressure tests were carried out on 40 shift workers with a hypertension level of 1 (according to WHO). Every 5 day period these tests were carried out before, during and after work in the early, late and night shifts. No significant change of both the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure could be found, which could result from shift work, before and after each shift irrespective of the blood pressure stabilization (good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory). The group containing satisfactorily as well as unsatisfactorily stabilized workers suffering from hypertension showed a significant decrease of the systolic blood pressure from the early shift through the late till the night shifts, with the diastolic blood pressure remaining constant. There were no apparent differences in the range of average blood pressure values regarding the various forms of treatment (without medication, monotherapy and combined therapy). The systolic blood pressure is significantly lower only in the group with no medication in the early shift after finishing work and it also decreases from the early shift through the late till the night shifts, while within the other therapy groups no change of both the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure was apparent. Thus shift work does not cause any measurable increase in blood pressure within the test group (suffering from hypertension) that would impair their working capacity. There is no increase of health risk with regard to the blood pressure response during shift work particularly during night work provided the blood pressure is within the normal range.