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Shift work and long work hours and their association with chronic health conditions: A systematic review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses

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  • Adovich S Rivera
  • Maxwell Akanbi
  • Linda C O’Dwyer
  • Megan McHugh

Abstract

Background: Previous reviews have demonstrated that shift work and long work hours are associated with increased risk for chronic conditions. However, these reviews did not comprehensively assessed the body of evidence, and some were not conducted in a systematic manner. A better understanding of the health consequences of shift work and long work hours will aid in creating policy and practice recommendations. This review revisits the epidemiologic evidence on the association of shift work and long work hours with chronic conditions with particular emphasis on assessing the quality of the evidence. Methods and findings: We conducted a systematic review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses (SR-MA) that assessed the link between shift work or long work hours and chronic conditions (PROSPERO CRD42019122084). We evaluated the risk of bias of each SR-MA using AMSTAR v2 and assessed the overall evidence for each condition using the GRADE approach. We included 48 reviews covering cancers, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and related conditions, pregnancy complications, depression, hypertension, and injuries. On average, only 7 of 16 AMSTAR items were fulfilled. Few SR-MAs had a registered protocol and nearly all failed to conduct a comprehensive search. We found moderate grade evidence linking shift work to breast cancer and long work hours to stroke. We found low grade evidence linking both shift work and long work hours with low to moderate increase in risk for some pregnancy complications and cardiovascular diseases. Low grade evidence also link long work hours and depression. Conclusions: Moderate grade evidence suggest that shift work and long work hours increase the risk of breast cancer and stroke, but the evidence is unclear on other chronic conditions. There is a need for high-quality studies to address this gap. Stakeholders should be made aware of these increased risks, and additional screening and prevention should be considered, particularly for workers susceptible to breast cancer and stroke.

Suggested Citation

  • Adovich S Rivera & Maxwell Akanbi & Linda C O’Dwyer & Megan McHugh, 2020. "Shift work and long work hours and their association with chronic health conditions: A systematic review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0231037
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231037
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    1. Virtanen, Marianna & Jokela, Markus & Madsen, Ida E.H. & Magnusson Hanson, Linda L. & Lallukka, Tea & Nyberg, Solja T. & Alfredsson, Lars & Batty, G. David & Bjorner, Jakob B. & Borritz, Marianne & Bu, 2018. "Long working hours and depressive symptoms: systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 3, pages 239-250.
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