Circadian dysynchrony among nurses performing shift work at a tertiary care teaching hospital: a preliminary study

Circadian rhythm is intracellular molecular mechanisms, influenced by environmental factors such as light, noise, mealtime, and sleep pattern. Shift work affects the sleep pattern, mealtime and psychological aspects of workers. This study aims to compare the effect of shift work on circadian dysynchrony among nurses in two different groups based on the duration of shift work.

It was a cross-sectional, preliminary study done at a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India. The study enrolled 170 nurses (aged <35 years) performing shift duties for last 3 years (group-1) and 1 year (group-2) respectively in a 1:1 ratio. Tools used to collect data were case reporting form (demographic and clinical variables, anthropometric measures), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index.

Mean age of participants was 27.39±2.89 vs. 26.14±2.45 in group 1 and 2. We found significant positive correlation of duration of shift work with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (P=0.000), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P=0.001), body fat % (P=0.019), weight (P=0.034), hip circumference (HC) (P=0.000) and also significant difference between means of DBP (P=0.001) and HC (P=0.003) in both groups. Whereas bad sleep quality was found in 79% and 66% of participants in group 1 and 2 respectively, the prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety in groups 1 and 2 was 60% and 37% respectively.

Long duration of shift work increases the risk of developing cardiometabolic risk factors as a consequence of circadian dysynchrony and varies with the duration of shift work.