The effects of shift work on health

What’s the problem?

Recent studies have tended to agree that shift work has an effect on the risk of injury. They show that working night shifts has about a 25–30 per cent higher risk of injury than working day shifts. They also show that working on 12-hour shifts rather than on eight-hour shifts increases the risk of injury, again by 25–30 per cent. Risk increases evenly over the first four shifts in a row, with larger increases on night than day shifts. [1] However, it’s not so clear how abnormal work patterns affect health. The disturbance of biological rhythms over many years may have negative long-term effects, which is a potential workplace concern, given the…