[Health status of shift workers in oil refineries]

Within a cross-sectional epidemiologic study in an oil refinery the "mean health score" in shift and daily workers was estimated, following a method developed by the authors and based on the mean health score technique processed by M. Koller for an Austrian refinery. No significant difference was observed in the mean health score between the shift-workers and the daily-workers. However analysis of the results shows, some meaningful trends to be considered: the mean health score would seen higher in shift-workers than in daily ones for lower class of age (30; 30-40 years), while an inverse trend is observed in higher class of age. In the Austrian refinery the shift-workers mean health score is uniformly lower in all class of age. The difference observed in the study refinery could be due to the lower class of length of employment of the young shift workers with regard to the young daily ones, while in the Austrian refinery the greater damage for the shift-workers state of health could be due to a greatly more irregular shift with less adaptability.