Relationship Between Work With Night Shifts and Self-Rated Health: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Work with night shifts has been reported to have a variety of negative health effects. Self-rated health is an important indicator of health, yet studies regarding the relationship of work with night shifts on self-rated health have reported inconsistent findings. The present study aimed to examine that relationship. We conducted a prospective cohort study using a self-administered online questionnaire on workers aged 20 years or older in Japan. The relationship between work with night shifts and self-rated health was examined by logistic regression analysis. Compared with participants who work without night shifts, the odds ratio of poor self-rated health was significantly higher among participants who work with night shifts (odds ratio: 1.19), after adjusting for age, sex, annual household income, industry category and self-rated health at baseline. The present study suggests that self-rated health, a commonly used simple and general indicator of health effects, can be used for workers with night shifts.