Overweight/obesity and physiological variables in workers exposed to rotating shift in a food production factory

Shift work has been hypothesized as a potential risk factor for overweight/obesity or other metabolic changes. We examined the relationship between work shift and body mass index, waist-hip ratio, lipid profile, and glucose concentration in workers from a food manufacturing factory in Colombia.

To investigate the association between shift work and changes in physiological variables in food manufacturing industry workers in Medellín, Colombia.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 763 employees from a food manufacturing factory. Information was collected from the medical records from the occupational health provider institution in charge of workers' periodic follow-up.

The study sample consisted of 637 (83.5%) men and 126 (16.5%) women. Mean age was 43.35 ± 9.8 years, and mean body mass index was 25.49 ± 3.23 kg/m². After adjusting for potential confounders, logistic multivariate regression revealed a statistically significant association between shift work and higher body mass index and higher total cholesterol levels compared with dayshift (p < 0.05). Finally, the analysis of waist-hip ratio for each shift scheme and sex showed that this ratio was higher for rotating shift workers, with a significant difference for women.

Significant associations were observed between shift work and overweight/obesity and hypercholesterolemia. However, these findings should be confirmed by longitudinal studies.