Daily trend of blood pressure in staff under conditions of shift work of railway transport

Introduction. The results of the study of features of the daily rhythm of blood pressure in people who constantly work in a rotational shift schedule, arising under the influence of night shift work, are discussed. The purpose of the study was to determine the modifying effect of working night wakefulness on the parameters of the daily rhythm of blood pressure in persons employed in work with a night shift schedule. Materials and methods. The analysis was carried out, in two cohorts of 19 years – 62 years employees of locomotive crews of Russian Railways. The study included drivers, assistant locomotive drivers, for at least 1 year, with night shifts n = 30,566, the number of measurements = 4,497,122, but borderline (high normal) blood pressure. Results. The lowest levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP) were found to be recorded in a cohort of subjects per day with a night shift, the highest – in the general group of workers and in a cohort of subjects per day with a day shift. The daily trend of SBP was characterized by a regular change of phases in all observation groups. In the general group, a subgroup of persons with normotonia, in a cohort of subjects, when working on a day shift, a DECLINE curve of the same type in configuration was formed. Limitations. The representativeness of the sample size was ensured by the participation in the study of employees of locomotive crews with a range of ages of 19-62 years. The limitations of the study are related to the distribution of respondents by gender: there are no female respondents in the sample. Conclusions. Parameters of the daily rhythm of blood pressure sensitively react to changes in working hours. To the greatest extent, changes in the daily rhythm during the hours of night working wakefulness are typical for the indicators of the daily rhythm of diastolic blood pressure.