Shiftwork Advantages as Predictors of Health

This study investigated the relationships between shiftwork advantages and subjective health. The Standard Shiftwork Index and a measure of shiftwork advantages were completed by 175 shift workers. Four advantage subscales were developed, corresponding to family, social/domestic, work, and time for oneself. Family advantages were negatively associated with psychological distress, cognitive and somatic anxiety, chronic fatigue, and digestive and cardiovascular symptoms (p < 0.05). After family advantages were partialled out, social/domestic advantages were negatively related to psychological distress (p < 0.05). Variety in work on each shift was significantly related to psychological distress and digestive symptoms. After the effects of shift and personality characteristics were accounted for, family advantages predicted a significant amount of the variance of cognitive anxiety (p < 0.05) and chronic fatigue (p < 0.01), and variety in work, family, and social/domestic advantages predicted a significant amount of variance of psychological distress (p < 0.05). The authors conclude that family advantages are related to psychological health, and to a lesser extent physical health, but that other advantages have little relationship to subjective health.