Why the study?
Shift work encompasses 20% of the European workforce and high blood pressure remains a leading cause of death globally, but the magnitude of shift work's potential impact on blood pressure and hypertension needed synthesis.
Does shift work increase blood pressure and the risk of hypertension in workers compared to day workers?
Does shift work increase blood pressure and the risk of hypertension in workers compared to day workers?
Shift work, particularly permanent night work, is associated with modest but significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, highlighting an occupational risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Shift work was associated with higher BP; hypothesis-generating for occupational BP screening pending prospective confirmation.
Shift work (SW) encompasses 20% of the European workforce. Moreover, high blood pressure (BP) remains a leading cause of death globally. This review aimed to synthesize the magnitude of the potential impact of SW on systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and hypertension (HTN). MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases were searched for epidemiological studies evaluating BP and/or HTN diagnosis among shift workers, compared with day workers. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed and the results were expressed as pooled mean differences or odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the risk of bias. Forty-five studies were included, involving 117,252 workers. We found a significant increase in both SBD and DBP among permanent night workers (2.52 mmHg, 95% CI 0.75-4.29 and 1.76 mmHg, 95% CI 0.41-3.12, respectively). For rotational shift workers, both with and without night work, we found a significant increase but only for SBP (0.65 mmHg, 95% CI 0.07-1.22 and 1.28 mmHg, 95% CI 0.18-2.39, respectively). No differences were found for HTN. Our findings suggest that SW is associated with an increase of BP, mainly for permanent night workers and for SBP. This is of special interest given the large number of susceptible workers exposed over time.
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Madeira et al. (2021) studied this question.
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