New security balance for overnight workers

2 December 2012, an international team of researchers from the Italian world's first screening tool to help reduce sleep-related accidents and diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer, caused by shift work developed.

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Published in the journal sleep, the new tool can healthcare professionals and industry to better understand individual vulnerability to the health and safety effects of shift work.

This questionnaire screening for a condition known as shift work disorder (SWD) is developed by researchers at Monash University, and our partners, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and women hospital, and Henry Ford hospital.

At least 15% of workers in Australia, the USA and the United Kingdom, and about 23 percent of employees in Japan estimated to work outside normal working hours, causing significant disruption of their natural sleep-wake schedules. SWD, characterized by extreme sleepiness and/or insomnia, is thought to affect about 10 percent of workers in different shifts.

Shantha Rajaratnam of Monash and associate professor, Harvard University, said that the prevalence of shift work is unknown due to the lack of accurate evaluation tools.

"Shift work is a reality of modern economies, but research has shown that there are very real health risks associated with work outside normal hours are" Associate Professor Rajaratnam said.

"In addition to the associated health problems, shift workers are considerably more risk of accidents at the workplace. The workers most affected by disruption of sleep--who with SWD--good for a significant part of this risk and should be adopted. "

Shift work, especially at night, is linked to a higher rate of car crashes, industrial accidents, actual and near-miss quality control errors and injuries on the job.

Secondary health problems associated with shift work include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease and mood disorders, including depression.

"This questionnaire is an important step in better understanding causes of vulnerability to shifting work, and focused on interventions to those who need them the most," said Associate Professor Rajaratnam.

"But this is only a first step and further tests of actual impairment by lack of sleep should be developed for implementation in professional settings."

"More cooperation between researchers, industry and Government partners is necessary for this important challenges and shift work as safe and productive as possible."

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