Abstract
The objective of this review was to evaluate the epidemiologic evidence for a causal relation -between shift work and ischemic heart disease. We conducted a systematic search until the end of March 2008 for studies providing information on the relative risk of ischemic heart disease in relation to shift work. The quality of included papers was evaluated with respect to design, exposure and outcome information, bias, and exposure response assessment. Relevant information was retrieved from 14 studies. Seven of these analyzed fatal events, six -combined fatal and non-fatal events, while one study reported separately on both types of events. Relative risks ranged from 0.6-1.4 in 12 papers while two papers reported relative risks around 2.0. Most studies based on fatal events showed no or weak associations while studies that combined fatal and non-fatal events showed modest positive associations. In a majority of studies, we could not reasonably rule out negative or positive bias due to the quality of outcome or exposure information, or confounder control. Five studies used years in shift work for exposure response analysis and no consistent pattern were seen. There is limited epidemiological evidence for a causal relation between shift work and ischemic heart disease.
Highlights
Ischemic heart disease refers to a condition with disturbance of cardiac function due to a relative lack of oxygen in the myocardium
The authors compared the observed number of deaths by ischemic heart disease (ICD–7: 420) obtained from death certificates among day and shift workers with the number of expected deaths, controlling for age and calendar time using mortality rates from England and Wales
We found a total of 16 studies on shift work and risk of ischemic heart disease published between 1972–2008
Summary
We conducted a systematic search until the end of March 2008 for studies providing information on the relative risk of ischemic heart disease in relation to shift work. The quality of included papers was evaluated with respect to design, exposure and outcome information, bias, and exposure response assessment
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