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Abstract Introduction Shift work disorder (SWD) is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder associated with increased chance of experiencing poor mental health symptoms and physical health complaints. Traditional protective factors, such as resilience, as well as the ability to sleep at different times of the day, known as sleep flexibility, are known to reduce the risk of SWD, and to protect against poor mental health. However, more research is needed to understand how protective factors and SWD risk interact to predict health and wellbeing outcomes. The current study aimed to explore the role of traditional and sleep-specific protective factors in buffering the impact of high SWD risk on mental health and physical health complaints. Methods One hundred and twenty-six permanent nightshift workers or those working rotating shift schedules including nightshifts participated in an online cross-sectional study. The SWD-screening questionnaire determined participants’ SWD risk (low vs high). Participants completed validated measures to assess depression (Patient Health Questionnaire), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire), insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index), excessive sleepiness (Excessive Sleepiness Scale), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), and physical health complaints (Subjective Health Complaints inventory). Participants also completed measures assessing protective factors, including resilience (Resilience Scale), social support (Social Provisions Scale), organisational support (Survey of Perceived Organizational Support), perseverance (Short Impulsive Behaviour Scale), morningness-eveningness (reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire), and sleep flexibility and languidity (Circadian Type Inventory). Results Multiple regression analyses revealed that in individuals with high SWD risk, having high social support was associated with reduced depression symptoms (p=.004). In those at risk of SWD, higher levels of morningness protected against insomnia severity (p=.01) and poor sleep quality (p=.01). Lastly, high perceived organisational support buffered the impact of SWD risk on gastrointestinal (p=.006) and allergy complaints (p=.005). Conclusion Improving support systems for shift workers presents an opportunity to prevent poor outcomes when workers are experiencing SWD symptomology. For instance, organisations can implement strategies that support workers to reduce symptoms of depression and physical health complaints. Furthermore, organisations that rely on shift work should consider strategies to support those with low morningness, especially when they are at risk of SWD. Support (if any)
Harris et al. (Sat,) studied this question.