Prevention and Intervention for shift workers

Status:

ongoing

Aims:

Existing recommendations for the organization and design of shift work will be extended to optimize the prevention of potential health effects. The characteristics of specific shift systems for sleep, cancer and other chronic diseases will be investigated and exposures associated with shift work will be considered. Individual influencing factors such as chronotype and age will be given special focus.

Activities/Methods:

Overall, an estimated 20 million employed individuals in Germany work in some form of shift or weekend work, including approximately 4 million in night work. Shift work has been associated in various studies with both acute and chronic health burdens. In 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified long-term shift work involving circadian disruption as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A).

Within the framework of several projects, the health effects of shift work on cancer and chronic diseases are being investigated. For example, within the Heinz Nixdorf RECALL cohort, various types of cancer as well as diabetes and additional health outcomes are being analyzed. Using an international pooled study of case–control studies on breast cancer, the association between different characteristics of shift systems and breast cancer is being examined.

In the context of a longitudinal study on the social, psychological, and physiological consequences of permanent night work and twelve-hour shifts, the Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (IPA) is investigating differences between various shift systems and the role of chronotype, particularly with regard to sleep-wake rhythms. Furthermore, the IPA is examining the role of lighting in the health effects experienced by shift workers. In this regard, the effects of dynamic lighting among employees working in shift systems are to be investigated within the framework of a large-scale intervention study.

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