Night work increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in women



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Research shows that women who work at night and have unhealthy lifestyles are at particularly high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Conducted by American, Chinese and Austrian researchers, the study, published in the British Medical Journal, Examines data collected in two US long-term health studies of nurses; Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHS II, which started in 1976 and 1989 respectively.

The researchers extracted data from 143,410 women who did not have type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer, and who completed regular questionnaires about their health, diet, and lifestyle.

The nurses were selected because of their changing rotations that combine day, evening and night teams, which can disrupt personal routines and biological rhythms.

For this study, rotating night shifts were defined as having at least three quarters of a night per month in addition to normal day and evening shifts.

Similarly, the unhealthy lifestyle was defined according to four factors: being overweight or obese, having already smoked, doing less than 30 minutes of exercise a day and having a poor diet, low in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains, and rich in nutrients. processed meat, trans fatty acids, sugar and salt.

Over the last 22 to 24 years of follow-up, the study found that 10,915 of the 143,410 nurses were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

He found that every five years of night work, nurses were nearly three times more likely (31%) to have been diagnosed.

Similarly, people considered to have an unhealthy lifestyle have more than doubled (2.3 times) the risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

The study also looked into women who exhibited any of the four unhealthy lifestyle factors in conjunction with working night shifts and found that they faced an even higher risk.

For each individual unhealthy lifestyle factor, women who worked irregular hours increased their risk of type 2 diabetes by 2.83 times.

In total, the researchers calculated that rotating night shift work accounted for approximately 17 per cent of the combined higher risk of type 2 diabetes, unhealthy lifestyle for around 71 per cent and the remaining 11 per cent was additional risk related to the interaction of the two.

“Most cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented by adherence to a healthy lifestyle, and the benefits could be larger in rotating night shift workers,” they conclude.

The authors believe that this is the first study to look at the combined impact of an unhealthy lifestyle and night shift work on the risk of type 2 diabetes but admit that because all the nurses were female and mostly white, their findings may not be applicable to men or other racial and ethnic groups.

Diabetes.co.uk – a community website that provides support to people across the world – says that it’s all too easy for people not to be aware of the risks that stem from shift work.


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“When circadian rhythms are disrupted through shift work, short-term effects can include insomnia, while long-term effects may include obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure,” the website says.

“If you work shifts, there are some lifestyle changes worth making to improve your health. Three key areas to maximise your health during shift work are: Diet – meal planning and snacking, physical activity and sleep."

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