Prospective study of shift work and risk of coronary heart disease in women

The purpose of this study was to examine prospectively the relation of shift work to risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in a cohort of women.

An ongoing prospective cohort of US female nurses, in whom we assessed (in 1988) the total number of years during which they worked rotating night shifts (at least three nights per month in addition to day and evening shifts), included 79,109 women, 42 to 67 years old in 1988, who were free of diagnosed CHD and stroke. Incident CHD was defined as nonfatal myocardial infarction and fatal CHD. During 4 years of follow-up (1988 to 1992), 292 cases of incident CHD (248 nonfatal myocardial infarction and 44 fatal CHD) occurred. The age-adjusted relative risk of CHD was 1.38 (95% CI, 1.08 to 1.76) in women who reported ever doing shift work compared with those who had never done so. The excess risk persisted after adjustment for cigarette smoking and a variety of other cardiovascular risk factors. Compared with women who had never done shift work, the multivariate adjusted relative risks of CHD were 1.21 (95% CI, 0.92 to 1.59) among women reporting less than 6 years and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.12 to 2.03) among those reporting 6 or more years of rotating night shifts.

These data are compatible with the possibility that 6 or more years of shift work may increase the risk of CHD in women.