Documents Bøggild, Henrik 3 results

Objectives The effect of introducing regularity, few consecutive night shifts, more weekends off, and only 2 different types of shifts (day-evening or day-night) into shift scheduling on biomarkers of heart disease was studied.Methods Ergonomic shift criteria were introduced in a quasi-experimental controlled intervention in 4 hospital wards. Six wards participated as controls. Altogether 101 nurses and nurses' aides were followed for 6 months with measurements of cholesterol and triglycerides. The intervention led to more regular schedules and more staff having 2 shifts in 2 of the intervention wards 1 year after the intervention. The schedules among the controls became less regular and less predictable. The number of consecutive night shifts remained unchanged.Results After 6 months the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level had increased in the intervention group, and the total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and the total:HDL cholesterol ratio had decreased. Regardless of the intervention, changes in regularity were associated with the triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels and also with the total:HDL cholesterol ratio. More ergonomic changes were associated with lower LDL cholesterol levels, a lower total:HDL cholesterol ratio, and higher HDL cholesterol levels.Conclusions Increased ergonomic scheduling was possible. Lipids and lipoproteins changed as predicted, both when the changes were assessed in respect to the changes in schedules that resulted from the intervention and the changes that occurred regardless of the intervention. The study suggests that scheduling based on ergonomic criteria is a possible means for reducing the risk of heart disease among shift workers.

"Angina pectoris, abdominal or intestinal angina, and claudicatio intermittens are all well-known clinical pain syndromes related to ischemia as a result of regional atherosclerotic arteries. A decade ago Kauppila (1) hypothesized that low-back pain could be due to atherosclerosis of the small lumbar arterial vessels. The hypothesis was later supported by studies using magnetic resonance (MR) (2), which has shown occlusion in these arteries more often in patients with low-back pain than in controls, and, in postmortem studies, occluded or narrowed arteries were more often found in patients with low-back pain (3). Most of the studies have been cross-sectional or have at least collected information on low-back pain in retrospect, with the risk of information bias.In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health, Leino-Arjas and her co-workers report a cohort study (4) in which risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) were related to the development of low-back pain 28 years later among industrial employees. The paper finds that, especially for the men, smoking, high body mass index (BMI), high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure, alone and in combination, predict low-back pain and thus support the atherosclerotic origin of low-back pain. ..."

"Objective:Our aim was to review published literature on the association between shift work and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.Methods:A systematic review of the literature was conducted of studies that have reported GI symptoms and diseases among shift workers. We used Medline to search for articles from 1966–2009. Next, we manually searched articles in the reference list of each article and previous reviews.Results: Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. Four of six studies showed a significant association between shift work and GI symptoms, and five of six studies reported an association between shift work and peptic ulcer disease. Two of three studies showed an association between shift work and functional GI disease. Only a few studies have examined gastroesophageal reflux disease, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, or GI cancers in relation to shift work.Conclusions: Our general judgment is that shift workers appear to have increased risk of GI symptoms and peptic ulcer disease. However, control for potential confounders (eg, smoking, age, socioeconomic status, and other risk factors) was often lacking or insufficient in many of the studies we examined."