Blood pressure variation in night shift male security guards in north Kerala

Abstract

Background: In modern society, people have lost the classical 7 am–6 pm day work and nighttime sleep cycle. A huge working population is engaged in night shift, part-time work, weekend work, being on-call all the time, prolonged duty periods (12–24 h at a stretch), etc. Apart from the nature of the work, working time or work shift is a key issue that impacts human health. Aim and Objective: The objective of this study was to study the effect of night shift work on blood pressure (BP). Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 200 security guards from north Kerala, who were divided into two groups based on the night and day shift duty. BP was measured using a sphygmomanometer (mercury). Results: The mean (± SD) systolic BP (SBP) in day shift security guards was 127.28 ± 9.417 and in night shift security guards was 131.08 ± 10.469. The mean (± SD) Diastolic BP (DBP) in day shift security guards was 80.68 ± 4.218 and in night shift security guards was 82.08 ± 3.792. Conclusion: We found a significant increase in SBP and DBP in night shift security guards compared to day shift security guards.