Individual and social determinants of shiftwork tolerance

This paper reviews evidence published on individual and social determinants of shiftwork tolerance since 1993. In agreement with earlier reviews, indi vidual differences show only some low and inconsistent concurrent covariati on with shiftwork tolerance, and no predictive power for these measures has been found. It is thus not possible to predict future shiftwork tolerance from individual differences. Social conditions are also related to shiftwor k tolerance, although again predictive power has not been demonstrated. An examination of the reasons for this state of the art suggested means of imp roving the relevance and usability of future research in this area.