Shift Work Tied to Later Frailty

MONDAY, April 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Shift work may play a role in developing later frailty, according to a study published online March 10 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Durdana Khan, from the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University in Toronto, and colleagues examined the association between shift work exposure and frailty using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. The analysis included 47,740 individuals aged 45 to 85 years at baseline. At baseline, primary shift work variables were derived as follows: ever exposed to shift work, shift work exposure in longest job, and shift work exposure in current job.

The researchers found that ever exposure to shift work was associated with frailty versus only working daytime. Frailty was more likely among women who worked in rotating shifts in their longest jobs versus those who worked only daytime.

"We cannot ignore the negative health outcomes related to shift work, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, and certain cancers. Our study is the first to investigate the relationship between shift work and frailty for middle-age and older adults," Khan said in a statement. "Although these findings are preliminary, they suggest that circadian disruption may play an important role in frailty, and this warrants further investigation."

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