Permanent night work and risk of injuries: A register-based cohort study using payroll data

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Epidemiology
• Workforce Management

Background:

• Shift work is linked to increased injury risk.
• Optimal organization of night work schedules remains unclear.
• Understanding injury patterns across different shift types is crucial for worker safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare injury risk among permanent night workers versus other work schedules.
• To investigate the association between various shift patterns and hospital-treated injuries.
• To inform evidence-based strategies for injury prevention in shift workers.

Main Methods:

• A register-based cohort study of Danish hospital employees (2007-2018).
• Work schedules categorized by proportion of night, evening, and day shifts.
• Poisson regression used to estimate injury incidence rate ratios (IRR), adjusted for covariates.

Main Results:

• Permanent night workers exhibited lower injury risk than other shift groups.
• Injury risk was higher for evening/night workers (IRR 1.37) and day/evening/night workers (IRR 1.37) compared to permanent night workers.
• Permanent night workers showed similar injury risk to permanent day workers.

Conclusions:

• Permanent night work is associated with lower injury risk than mixed shift schedules.
• Factors like task variation, adaptation, and worker selection may influence these findings.
• Targeted injury prevention efforts are recommended for workers rotating through different shift types.