Conceptualizing weight management for night shift workers: A mixed-methods systematic review

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Metabolic Health
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Shift work is linked to higher obesity and metabolic disease risk.
• Effective weight management strategies for night shift workers are lacking.
• Understanding barriers and enablers is crucial for intervention development.

Purpose of the Study:

• Identify barriers and enablers to weight management in night shift workers.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing weight management interventions.
• Assess whether interventions address identified barriers and enablers.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods systematic literature review.
• Thematic synthesis of qualitative studies using the social-ecological model (SEM).
• Narrative synthesis of quantitative intervention studies.

Main Results:

• Identified barriers across intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and community levels.
• Most interventions did not achieve significant weight loss or address identified barriers.
• One intervention demonstrated clinically significant weight loss.

Conclusions:

• Weight management interventions for night shift workers require addressing barriers at multiple social-ecological levels.
• Future interventions should be tailored to the unique challenges faced by shift workers.
• Further research is needed on effective, barrier-informed interventions for this population.