Other issues with shiftwork include the following: 1- The adverse effects of shiftwork on social interactions and negative effects on family life of those who perform on a shiftwork basis. })(); Your email address will not be published. Sleep disturbance and altered eating patterns are the two primary risk factors of shift work (LaDou, 1982). This is the primary cause of the increase in work-related accidents, sick absenteeism, depression, workplace disputes as well as family and social disputes. The shift workers should manage to get enough time to sleep during the working days rather than to sleep for extended periods only in the off days which disturbs the circadian rhythm. Some of the key issues with shiftwork include its adverse effect on circadian rhythms, dilution of supervision, challenges in exchanging performance information among individuals who work in different shifts, the adverse effects of shiftwork on social interactions, and higher work setup times. In many cases, although the calorie intake is adequate, the loss of appetite and eating disorders are associated with the dislike of eating outside the home and the inability to have food with family or friends. gcse.src = 'https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx; Research shows shift work has a negative effect on health, relationships, marriages and children, and increases rates of separation and divorce. Similarly, safety issues are significantly compromised when one has to attend a task in the middle of the night and continues until morning with insufficient sleep and physical & mental work stress. Exposure to chemical or physical agents should also be considered when selecting a shift system as well as ergonomic hazards. “Shift work, although allowing continuous operation may negatively impact upon the worker and organization” (Stirton & Khela, 1997). For example, even if the night shift workers wanted to participate in the social activities, they would often have to do it at the cost of their nocturnal orientation which would lead to difficulty and problems with the circadian readjustment. The following two figures illustrate these two models: (Adapted from the work of Hanna and Haddad (2009)). Shift works can markedly disturb eating patterns and eating habits. This clinic should include physicians, chronobiologists, sleep clinicians, occupational and physical therapists and family therapists who can help the workers coping poorly (Monk et al., 1992). ← Sports Injuries; a team approach of the sports physiotherapist and the sports psychologists. Shift work may result in a disturbance in the social relationships of the worker with family, friends, and society. Women showed a greater decrease in performance on cognitive and memory tests. Particularly, the night shift can significantly disturb the circadian rhythm leading to various health disorders. This impairment in both quantity and quality of sleep develops the symptoms of insomnia or excessive sleepiness, digestive disorders like ulcers and reduced mental alertness and concentrations. It is important to note, however, that, similar to working overtime, shiftwork has adverse effects on labor productivity. The term shift work refers to any work schedule that falls outside the hours of 7 am and 6 pm. These psychosocial stressors significantly disturb in the work and performance and also can cause serious health disorders due to the use of excess medications and drugs, and psychological stress. So, some individuals may adapt to the changes in biological rhythm but most individuals find it difficult to adapt and will experience detrimental health effects over the long term from shift works especially night shifts. The adaptation and tolerability to these physiological changes highly dependent upon the individual. There is no single and quick-fix solution to minimize or prevent the negative impacts of shift works (Monk et al, 1992). Shift work is necessary in many industries, but it has serious effects on the human body. So, the shift work needs to schedule in such a way that there is the minimization of loss of sleep and fatigue and maximization of quality time for family, friends, and socialization. [Read More][weiterlesen], Add content after your titles but before your content here. Due to sleep disturbance, disturbance in circadian rhythm and continuous psycho-social, family and work stress, shift workers are always prone to suffer from headaches, migraine, and other neurological disorders like depression, aggression, dementia, etc. Other labor-related considerations that need to be given to shift-working include long bodily adjustment periods, especially for those individuals who are not used to shift-working, higher accident and error rates in performing shiftwork, higher likelihood of improper alcohol consumption before or during shiftwork, and poor attitude towards shiftwork. So, diseases like hypertension, coronary heart diseases, heart attack are increasing in the shift workers. However, today an accepted general norm is eight hours a day or forty-hour a week shift. These outcomes are compared against the NECA 1969 study. All these factors lead to indigestion, constipation and stomach ulcers.
ACSM’s Recommendations for Exercise Preparticipation Health Screening. Work performance and efficiency are largely dependent on the type of shift work schedule and the duration of each shift (Costa, 1996). As discussed above, due to the disturbed eating patterns and unhealthy diet, almost every shift workers will complain of gut trouble at some stage or other. All of the above-mentioned factors adversely influence work performance in performing tasks that are implemented on a shiftwork basis. Circadian rhythms are the approximate 24-hour variations in bodily functions in individuals. One of the factors with adverse effects on labor productivity is shiftwork. Consequences of shiftwork are not limited to those effects that adversely affect the circadian rhythms of individuals who perform on a shiftwork basis. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. With the extended shift work requiring a similar position for the long periods can lead to musculoskeletal problems such as joint diseases, back pain, and muscle cramps.
In addition, extra time is needed in shiftwork for the process of hand-over and transition from one shift to another. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Examples job-specific needs that have to be evaluated include safety requirements, higher demands for air conditioning or heat equipment to perform shiftwork, and adequacy of equipment, tool, machinery, and material to ensure enough resources are available on-site to make progress as expected. var cx = 'partner-pub-7090256898298292:9422579569'; The American Association for Cost Engineering (AACE) has identified some of the recommended specialized studies that can be used to evaluate the adverse effects of shiftwork on productivity (AACE, 2004). Shift work and continuous work situation can simply enhance the various risk factors of heart diseases such as smoking and drinking, lack of exercise, high lipid diets, psycho-social, and work stress.
These effects can lead to detrimental effects on the work and performance and the work safety of the workers. However, The quality of sleep may be affected regardless of individual ability, regular practice, and adaptations. Shift workers frequently complain about their family disputes because of lack of adequate and quality time to the family members especially when there are smaller age group children (Maertz et al., 2011). Sleep clinicians have developed the patterns, behaviors, and preparations of quality sleep as ‘sleep hygiene’. Daytime is not conducive to sleep either in terms of circadian rhythm or environmental conditions (Drake, Roehrs, Richardson, Walsh & Roth, 2004). Adequate supporting and supervisory personnel are needed when a work is performed on a shiftwork basis. Sleeping during light hours and being awake at night can negatively affect the circadian rhythm and thus every aspect of one’s health. From the above discussion, we have found that shift works created multifaceted problems and thus requires multifaceted solutions. Required fields are marked *. While men and women go through the same general sleep cycles every night, gender affects sleep. In conclusion, the shift work has severe negative impacts in physical, mental, physiological health and psycho-social aspects of the workers. Our posts to the Insights page share fresh insights and seasoned advice about many project and construction management topics. Carry on the outstanding work! Another important component of coping behavior is to maintain the regularity of sleep patterns. Most studies on the consequences of shift works, particularly night shift work primarily concerns with the disturbance of the employee’s circadian rhythm. Lack of Sleep Hinders Positive Thinking, Promotes Negativity. Shift work has been identified as a risk factor for diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes. The physical and mental load of the task should be considered when selecting the length of a workshift.
Shift work is generally defined as the working hours outside of normal work hours and extended period of work more than 8 hours a day (Monk & Folkard, 1992). A recent study looked at how these effects present in different sexes. Since this model uses Measured Mile Method (MMM) to calculate productivity loss in periods with and without overtime, the outcomes of the model are shown as MMM. As such, those who need to perform on a shiftwork basis typically experience a degradation in performance. Each of these categories are further discussed in the following: Shiftwork typically requires hiring of additional personnel; however, it is important to note that, because of the learning curve effect, the efficiency level of new hires are typically lower than the efficiency of the current team members. 4- Higher work setup times. Women may be especially at risk for negative health effects. var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; 2- Dilution of supervision typically occur as a result of shiftwork because the supervising team may not use the same working pattern than the working pattern used by shift-working individuals.