Does shift work lead to poorer health habits? A comparison between women who had always done shift work with those who had never done shift work

Shift work has been reported to predict health problems, and a possible exp lanation is that shift work may lead to poorer health habits, thereby incre asing a person's vulnerability to illness. This study examined the associat ion between shift work and health habits, as indicated by smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and by being overweight. A questionnaire was sent to all 2795 female nurses working in the 10 hospitals of two Finnish healt h care districts. From the 2299 respondents, we selected those 506 shift wo rkers who reported having always done shift work and those 183 day workers who had never done shift work. Shift workers were found to smoke more and t o be overweight more often than day workers. These differences gradually in creased in each successive age group, being 1.94 pack-years in smoking and 0.9 kg(-2) in in body mass index among nurses over 45 years of age. Shift w ork was not associated with alcohol intake or sedentary lifestyle. This evi dence is compatible with the possibility that shift work in nurses increase s smoking and being overweight to a degree that contributes to health probl ems, including coronary heart disease.