Night Shift Work Characteristics and Incident Coronary Heart Disease
Summary
This national cohort study followed more than 250,000 Danish healthcare workers, comparing night-shift employees with daytime workers to see if schedule details affected the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Men working night shifts had a modestly higher risk of CHD (22% higher), while the risk for women was slightly raised but not statistically strong. Importantly, the study found no consistent evidence that specific shift features—such as the number of monthly nights, consecutive nights, or years of night work—changed the risk. In this group, the overall exposure to night work, rather than the fine details of scheduling, appeared linked to heart health.
Why It Matters For Night Shift Workers and Night Owls
This research suggests that simply working nights may increase heart disease risk slightly, especially for men, but the exact structure of the schedule (like how many nights in a row you work) may not make a big difference. For workers, the key message is that protecting cardiovascular health through lifestyle and medical monitoring is especially important if you do night shifts. Even if schedules can’t be adjusted, paying attention to diet, exercise, blood pressure, and cholesterol can help offset the added risk.
Notes
Eur J Public Health.