Metabolic syndrome in fixed-shift workers

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To analyze if metabolic syndrome and its altered components are associated with demographic, socioeconomic and behavioral factors in fixed-shift workers.METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 902 shift workers of both sexes in a poultry processing plant in Southern Brazil in 2010. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was determined according to the recommendations from Harmonizing the Metabolic Syndrome. Its frequency was evaluated according to the demographic (sex, skin color, age and marital status), socioeconomic (educational level, income and work shift), and behavioral characteristics (smoking, alcohol intake, leisure time physical activity, number of meals and sleep duration) of the sample. The multivariate analysis followed a theoretical framework for identifying metabolic syndrome in fixed-shift workers.RESULTS The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the sample was 9.3% (95%CI 7.4;11.2). The most frequently altered component was waist circumference (PR 48.4%; 95%CI 45.5;51.2), followed by high-density lipoprotein. Work shift was not associated with metabolic syndrome and its altered components. After adjustment, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was positively associated with women (PR 2.16; 95%CI 1.28;3.64), workers aged over 40 years (PR 3.90; 95%CI 1.78;8.93) and those who reported sleeping five hours or less per day (PR 1.70; 95%CI 1.09;2.24). On the other hand, metabolic syndrome was inversely associated with educational level and having more than three meals per day (PR 0.43; 95%CI 0.26;0.73).CONCLUSIONS Being female, older and deprived of sleep are probable risk factors for metabolic syndrome, whereas higher educational level and higher number of meals per day are protective factors for metabolic syndrome in fixed-shift workers.

Prevalence and associated factors of cardio-metabolic risk factors in Iranian seafarers

“…In the present research study, shift work was not associated with the risk of MetS among Iranian seafarers. Also, in the study of Canuto et al [10], it was observed that shift work was not related to MetS. In the causal pathway that connects shift work to MetS, probably sleep duration is a confounder [24] which was not included in the current study and analyses.…”

“…Recent studies suggest that nutritional factors, shift work, sleep patterns [6], work stress [7], and fatigue [8] may play a critical role in the increase in MetS risk. Recently, few studies have assessed the prevalence of cardio-metabolic and associated risk factors among seafarers [5,9,10]. The study which was conducted among German seafarers showed that the prevalence of high blood pressure and high triglycerides were 49.7% and 41.6%, respectively [9].…”

Associação entre privação do sono e obesidade em trabalhadores

“…A privação do sono está associada a várias consequências adversas, como aumento do apetite [23], comprometimento da sensibilidade à insulina [24][25][26] e aumento dos níveis de colesterol total e de lipoproteína de baixa densidade [27], culminando em distúrbios metabólicos [18,28,29] e doenças cardiovasculares [30][31][32][33].…”

Is Insulin Resistance Work Related?

“…Increased risk for metabolic syndrome was not constantly found in relation to working in shifts. However, alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism, observed in experimental settings [65,66] of night shifts combined with a total reduction on sleeping hours (less than 5 h/ day) and adverse nutritional habits [67] significantly increase the risk.…”