Young Female Nurses Research Articles

Lumbar Extensor and Flexor Muscle Structural Changes in Young Female Nurses with Chronic Bilateral Non-Specific Low Back Pain: A Case-Control Study.

Muscle structural studies on non-specific low back pain in young female nurses are rare. This study aimed to investigate the changes of lumbar extensor and flexor muscle cross-sectional area and fatty infiltration in young female nurses with chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain by lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging to speculate on the possible pathogenesis. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 58 female nurses with chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain and 60 healthy female controls were analyzed retrospectively. The lumbar extensor and flexor muscle cross-sectional area/intervertebral disc cross-sectional area ratio, as well as magnetic resonance imaging signal intensity of lumbar extensor (erector spinae; multifidus) and flexor muscles (psoas muscle) were measured, calculated and compared between nurses and healthy controls by independent samples t-test. In addition, each mean MRI signal intensity of lumbar extensor or flexor muscles in nurses at different anatomical segments from lumbar vertebrae 2 (L2)-L3 to L5-sacral vertebrae 1 (S1) was also compared, and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analyzed the mean MRI signal intensity between muscles in nurses with multiple comparisons. There was no significant difference in lumbar extensor and flexor muscle cross-sectional area/intervertebral disc cross-sectional area ratio between nurses with chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain and healthy controls, p > 0.01. The magnetic resonance imaging signal intensity in lumbar extensor and flexor muscle was significantly higher in nurses with chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain than in healthy controls, p < 0.01. The MRI signal intensity of lumbar extensor muscle at the lower lumbar segments was higher than at the upper ones. The magnetic resonance imaging signal intensity of the extensor muscle (erector spinae; multifidus) was significantly higher than that of the flexor muscle (psoas muscle), p < 0.01. This study showed that young nurses with chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain have lumbar extensor and flexor muscle fatty infiltration without muscle atrophy. We hypothesized that muscle fatty infiltration may occur prior to muscle atrophy. Therefore, the high fatty infiltration of the lumbar extensor and flexor muscle may be a cause or a result of chronic bilateral non-specific low back pain in young nurses.

Empirical Analysis With Legislative Solutions of Workplace Cyberbullying

World Health Organization (WHO) calls for 2.5 nurses per 1000 people in the national health-care system. The total available nurses per 1,000 persons in Pakistan is 0.604, far less than the WHO standards. Pakistan is among 57 countries facing a crisis in Human Resource for Health (HRH). Apart from other social issues, cyber-bullying has further affected the participation of female nurses in health-care jobs. The issue of cyberbullying is silently draining female participation in nursing jobs. Moreover, the issue of bullying is not often raised because of moral, ethical, and social issues related to the reporting and remedial system. Therefore, the article sets to examine the credibility of the available remedial system, the issues involved with reporting the issue of cyberbullying, and the manner to improve the response against the issue of cyberbullying with reference to young female nurses. To construct the arguments, the study will examine the issue of cyber-bullying related to female nurses at statistical and legislative levels.

Reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire: Korea Nurses' Health Study.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESThis study aimed to examine the reproducibility of food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) designed for young female nurses in the Korea Nurses' Health Study.SUBJECTS/METHODSThe reproducibility of web-based, self-administered FFQs was evaluated among 243 Korean female nurses. The first FFQ (FFQ1) was administered from March 2014 to February 2019 and the second FFQ (FFQ2) from November 2019, with a mean interval of 2.8 years between the FFQs (range, 9 months–5.6 years). Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients (r values) and quartile agreements between FFQ1 and FFQ2 were calculated for intakes of energy, nutrients, and foods.RESULTSPearson correlation coefficients ranged from 0.41 to 0.55 (median r = 0.51) for energy and raw nutrients and from 0.16 to 0.46 (median r = 0.36) for energy-adjusted nutrients. Spearman correlation coefficients ranged from 0.25 to 0.72 (median r = 0.41) for food items. The percentages of women who were classified into the same or adjacent quartile were 77% to 84% (median = 82%) for raw nutrients and 69% to 86% (median = 78%) for foods.CONCLUSIONSThe results indicated that the web-based FFQ used in the Korea Nurses' Health Study has acceptable reproducibility.

Circadian Rhythm Disorders and Corresponding Functional Brain Abnormalities in Young Female Nurses: A Preliminary Study.

Objective: Shift work is associated with a decrease in melatonin level and perturbation of the circadian rhythm; however, it is unknown if these lead to functional brain changes. In this study, we investigated whether circadian rhythm disorders caused by shift work are related to changes in brain functional connectivity (FC) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) using whole-brain resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).Methods: This prospective case-control study included nine female night shift nurses and nine age-matched female day work nurses with normal sleep rhythms. To assess sleep quality and mood, participants were asked to complete questionnaires. Serum melatonin and cortisol levels were measured. ReHo of whole-brain resting-state function and seed-based FC of the bilateral hypothalamus were compared between groups. Variables that differed significantly between groups were used to examine the association between questionnaire scores and hormone levels and fMRI data.Results: The night shift nurses had significantly lower sleep quality and melatonin levels; lower ReHo activation in the bilateral cerebellar hemisphere and higher ReHo in the bilateral occipital lobe and left parietal lobe; and higher FC from the hypothalamus to the right cingulate gyrus, right putamen, and vermis than did the day shift nurses. Activation of the right cerebellar hemisphere left superior parietal gyrus, and the right superior occipital gyrus was correlated with sleep quality scores. Moreover, activation of the right cerebellar hemisphere (r = 0.583, P = 0.011) was correlated with melatonin levels, and higher sleepiness scores were associated with stronger FC between the hypothalamus and vermis (r = 0.501, P = 0.034).Conclusions: Circadian rhythm disorder caused by night shift work can lead to a decrease in sleep quality and melatonin level, as well as a series of changes in brain FC and ReHo.

Clinical characteristics of 132 healthcare workercases with COVID-19: A retrospective study from a single center in Wuhan, China.

Many healthcare workers (HCWs) have been confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in China. A retrospective, single-center study was conducted. The median age of the 132 HCWs with COVID-19 was 32 years, with 92 (69.7%) beingfemales. There were 47 (35.6%) doctors, 72 (54.6%) nurses, and 13 (9.9%) other HCWs. Ten of the 132 patients (7.6%) had underlying diseases. The most common symptoms of illness onset were fever (70, 53.0%), cough (66, 50.0%), and fatigue (58, 43.9%). All patients were categorized into mild or moderate COVID-19 type on admission to hospital, and five (3.8%) progressed to the severe COVID-19 type. Sixty-six HCWs patients were included in both the early and later discharged group. In the logistic analysis, the later discharged patients had a longer time for illness onset to hospital admission (per 1 day; OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.03-1.18; p = .006), a higher proportion of>3 onset symptoms clustering (OR, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.27-7.62; p = .01), and a higher percentage of other HCWs (OR, 6.20; 95% CI, 1.49-25.80; p = .01). HCWpatients were youngfemalenurses with fewercomorbidities, and most were mild or moderate COVID-19 type. The later discharged patients exhibited characteristics of longer time for illness onset to hospitalization and clustering of onset symptoms.

Gender Division of Labor, Burnout, and Intention to Leave Work Among Young Female Nurses in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Women in Japan face difficulties balancing work and personal life due to the gender division of labor, and medical professions are no exception. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the gender division of labor affects the intention to leave the workplace among the nursing profession. Among 328 female nurses working for three university-affiliated hospitals in Tokyo, Japan, above 70% were in their 20s and 30s and single, and agreed with the gender division of labor that men should be the breadwinner and women should assume family responsibilities. Adjusting for three types of Copenhagen burnout inventory, stepwise multivariable logistic regression models identified that being younger (all p-values < 0.05), each domain of burnout score (each p < 0.001 for work-, personal-, and client-related burnout) increased a risk of intention to leave, and high support decreased the risk (all p < 0.001). Women who agreed with the gender division of labor were more likely to have intentions to leave (p = 0.003 but this association disappeared when adjusted. The findings of study demonstrate that perceptions toward gender division of labor are not a determinant of intention to leave the workplace but the young nurses and those who scored high on burnout were the most vulnerable population.

Psychosocial work environment and oxidative stress among nurses’

Background: Work stress among nurses has increased in recent years due to the demands of clinical nursing. Objectives: To investigate psychosocial work stress among nurses using the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model with assessment malondialdehyde (MDA) as an oxidative stress marker and total antioxidants. Methods: The present study was conducted on 204 registered nurses worked at two tertiary hospitals in Menoufia governorate, Egypt through the period from the 1st of February to the end of July 2016. Two questionnaires were applied including general demographic and occupational histories as well as effort-reward questionnaire. Blood analysis was performed to assess MDA and total antioxidant levels. Results: ERI was prevalent among the study participants (72.5%). ERI was more prevalent among young married nurses who worked more than 10 years. Nurses that worked at ICUs complained more of ERI (43.2%) while nurses that worked at operation rooms complained more of overcommitment (62.5%). MDA levels were significantly positively correlated with E/R ratios (rho = 0.350, P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: Work stress was prevalent among the studied nurses as revealed by the high ERI and MDA levels. Young married female nurses complained more of work stress. ICUs and operating rooms were the most stressful departments at the studied hospitals. Hence, implementing programs and strategies that eliminate stressful working conditions at hospitals is critical to the reduction and prevention of work stress among nurses.

Effects of shift work on abdominal obesity among 20-39-year-old female nurses: a 5-year retrospective longitudinal study.

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the effects of shift work on abdominal obesity among young and middle-aged female nurses during a 5-year retrospective study.MethodsThis retrospective study included female nurses (20–39 years old) who worked at a university hospital in Korea and had available health screening results from 2010–2015. Among 2,611 employees, 934 healthy 20–39-year-old female nurses were identified, and data regarding their demographic information (age and date of employment), waist circumferences (WC), and lifestyle factors (alcohol and exercise) were obtained. Abdominal obesity was defined as a WC of ≥80 cm, based on the World Health Organization’s Asia-West Pacific standard in 2000. The mean WC change from baseline was analyzed using the paired t test, and the association between shift work and abdominal obesity was analyzed using the generalized estimating equation.ResultsCompared to all day workers (both age groups), the 20–29-year-old nurses did not exhibit significant changes in WC at each follow-up. However, among the 30–39-year-old nurses, shift workers exhibited a significant change in WC (vs. baseline) during years 4 and 5, compared to day workers. After adjusting for effective confounders and stratifying the participants according to age, the 20–29-year-old nurses exhibited an odds ratio of 3.21 (95 % confidence interval: 1.29–7.98) for shift work-associated obesity, although the odds ratio for the 30–39-year-old nurses was not statistically significant.ConclusionIn the study population, shift work was associated with a significant change in mean WC among 30–39-year-old nurses, and the shift work-associated risk of abdominal obesity was significant among 20–29-year-old nurses. These results indicate that shift work may influence abdominal obesity differently in 20–29-year-old and 30–39-year-old female nurses.

An assessment of knowledge and factors that exposed young female student nurses to hiv infection at the university of Namibia, oshakati campus

Background: This study presents an assessment of knowledge and an investigation of specific factors that expose young female student nurses to HIV and AIDS at university of Namibia, Oshakati Campus. The concern over to what young female student nurses are able to control various issues of their sexual lives is critical question for health promotion and the prevention of further HIV infection. Student nurses are believed to have adequate information about HIV and AIDS compared to other young people in the communities.Aim: To assess HIV and AIDS knowledge levels and investigates factors that make young female nurses vulnerable to HIV infection at UNAM, Oshakati CampusMethod: A mixed-method approach was employed to collect the necessary data, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology. Qualitative data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire whereas qualitative data was gathered by means of focus group discussions. Quantitative data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 18, and results from the focus group discussions were grouped into themes and subthemes and analyzed using thematic analysis. Random sampling with replacement technique namely, the fishbowl technique was used to select respondent and participants. This ensures equal and independent chance of being selected each time.Results: Most respondents indicated to have adequate knowledge about HIV and AIDS and had positive attitude necessary to effect behavioral change and implementation of prevention and care strategies. Most respondents were aware of their risk factors and aspects that increased individual vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. While the knowledge and attitude were identified as adequate, the practices of the respondents did not explicit indicate adequate level of responsible behavior among the young female student nurses in the face of HIV and AIDS.Conclusion: Student nurses identified HIV and AIDS as a problem of “others” and continue to report that infection would be an accidental exposure as a result of their profession or perceived powerless over sexual matters and income inequalities. Prevention remains a challenge in planning programs needed to address risky sexual behavior among students due to structural, social, socio-economic dynamics, individual circumstances, gender and biological vulnerability.

Normal value of BMD (Bone Mineral Density) in Pakistani student nurses and its relation with age and other factors

The aim of this study was to evaluate the BMD in younger age group. It was a cross-sectional observational study done in January 2003. 223 subjects were taken (all females) of age group 16-25 years. Heel Ultrasound procedure was done on all these subjects using a "Clinical Bone Sonometer" and their T-score was plotted against age. The results of the study showed that young female nurses gain bone minerals with increasing age in this group.

Stress, Stress Reactions, Job Stressors and Coping among Nurses Working in Intensive Care Units and General Wards of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT Literature has presented nursing as a stressful profession. The present study was conducted to compare stress level and job stressors operating in two different units, i.e. intensive care units (ICU) and general wards of a tertiary care hospital of North India. This is a cross-sectional study involving 285 nurses (general wards = 176; ICU = 109). The nurses were selected conveniently. Demographic profile sheet, modified workplace stress scale (WSS), workplace stress symptom scale (WSSS) and coping checklist (CCL) of Rao, Subbakrishna and Prabhu (1989) was used in the study. Findings of the study revealed moderate to high stress level among general wards and ICU nurses with young female nurses experiencing more stress. Further, workload, role ambiguity and lesser social support accounted for significant amount stress among nurses working on both the units while external factors, such as physical environment and resources hardly contributed to stress. It was also found that the ICU nurses experienced stress more in the form of exhaustion (11.9%); irritation (11.9%) and reduced self-confidence (0.9%) that those working in general wards. However, the nurses on both the units use distraction, positive coping, problem-solving and religious strategies to manage and handle their stress. The findings of the study give insight into stress and stressors related to job which can be buffered using various stress management strategies by the nurse managers. How to cite this article Saini R, Kaur S, Das K. Stress, Stress Reactions, Job Stressors and Coping among Nurses Working in Intensive Care Units and General Wards of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Comparative Study. J Postgrad Med Edu Res 2016; 50(1):9-17.

Do rotational shifts affect micturition patterns in real practice? A pilot study in healthy, young female nurses.

PurposeHealthy, young individuals are known to exhibit circadian variation in urinary functions. However, the effects of chronic circadian disturbance on voiding functions are largely unknown. The present work compared the effects of rotational shifts on the micturition patterns of female nurses to that in female nurses with routine daytime shifts.MethodsA total of 19 nurses without lower urinary tract symptoms who worked rotational shifts for an average duration of 2 years were recruited. A voiding diary was kept for 9 consecutive days, and the overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS) questionnaire was completed three times, starting 3 days before their night duties until 3 days after completion of their night duties. For comparison, seven nurses with regular shifts completed a 3-day voiding diary and the OABSS questionnaire.ResultsFemale nurses working rotational shifts had lower overall urine production and had decreased urination frequency and nocturia than female nurses working regular shifts, even when the nurses who worked rotational shifts had a regular night's sleep for at least 7 days. Upon reinitiation of night duty, overall urine production increased significantly, with no significant changes in urgency and frequency. When these nurses returned to daytime duty, the volume of urine decreased but nocturnal urine production remained high, and the incidence of nocturia also increased significantly. However, the effects on OABSS score were not significant under the study design used.ConclusionsLong-term rotational shifts resulted in adaptive changes such as decreased urine production and frequency in healthy, young female nurses. In addition, their micturition patterns were significantly affected by abrupt changes in their work schedules. Although working in shifts did not increase urgency or frequency of urination in healthy, young female nurses working rotational shifts for an average 2 years, large-scale studies are needed to systematically analyze the influence of shift work timings on micturition in humans.

I'll Meet You in Your Dreams

In May 2012, we received a telephone call from a colleague at a regional cancer center. She asked whether we could admit a patient to our hospice—a man with relapsed, metastatic oral cancer and a life expectancy of only a few weeks. She seemed hesitant while describing the patient’s history. “This is a complicated case, from the medical as well as the psychological point of view. Dealing with the family won’t be easy. But we have to discharge him, and your hospice is the closest to his native village.” To care for patients throughout the whole course of their illness and until their eventual death, our oncology unit includes an inpatient hospice, one of the only such facilities in our region of Italy. As a result, we often receive requests for admission of patients we do not know, many with complicated medical and relational challenges. All too often, these patients tell us that they were caught off guard by being sent to a hospice, and they arrive too late for optimal clinical management. On the basis of our colleague’s description, we guessed that this patient, too, did not know his prognosis and would be unprepared to transition to a phase of palliative care only. Mr T turned out to be a wealthy and charming 45-year-old man, born and raised in Italy, who, approximately 15 years earlier, had started a business in Romania. He had been living with a Romanian woman, and the couple had a young daughter. Six months before we met him, he had undergone surgical resection and standard chemotherapy for his malignancy in Romania, but when his cancer rapidly recurred and progressed, he decided to return to Italy, hoping for more effective therapy. Three months before he was referred to our hospice, the cancer spread to the left side of his face and lymph nodes. In a desperate attempt to eradicate his disease, he underwent radical surgery to remove large parts of his face, followed by reconstructive surgery using two flaps of skin from his chest. He also required two subsequent interventions to repair surgical complications, after which his facial features were significantly altered. Despite these aggressive surgeries, the cancer quickly recurred again and progressed rapidly, eroding into the bones in the skull. He received palliative radiotherapy, but cure was no longer possible. And so Mr T was sent to our hospice. He was able to see only with one eye and could do that only by lifting his ptotic eyelid with his fingers. Skin and lymph node metastases were visible in his neck and chest. He required frequent aspiration of pus-like secretions from his tracheostomy and was fed through a gastrostomy. He could still walk for a few steps with some help, and his pain was adequately controlled by a continuous infusion of morphine. No longer able to speak, he was forced to communicate in writing, but what he wrote made it clear that his mental status was still normal. As we had anticipated, despite all that he had been through, the patient seemed unaware of the rapid and irreversible worsening of his clinical condition. He informed us that he had not been told by the referring hospital that he was going to die, but rather that the goal of this admission was to help him recover from damage caused by the palliative radiotherapy. It was painful to watch Mr T ask about all the details of his care plan with the idea that he could still be cured. More than anything, he wanted to get well enough to go back home to his 8-year-old daughter in Romania, even though he realized that this was outside his grasp at the time he arrived. Mr T was an ambitious and intelligent man, with a good sense of humor. When we asked him to suggest how we could reduce the lengthy, intrusive visits of an overzealous family member, for instance, he replied by making a hand gesture that mimed shooting her with a pistol. Despite his physical limitations, he was charming toward the hospice personnel, paying special attention to young female nurses. Of course his face was not even close to what used to be—but he would often show an old picture of himself before the disease, as a reminder of his past as a Latin lover. Walking by his room, we would sometimes catch him sitting on the edge his bed, with his elbow leaning on the bedside table and his fingers lifting his paralyzed eyelid, staring at his destroyed face in a mirror. We wondered how he could possibly cope with such a devastating change of his appearance. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY A R T O F O N C O L O G Y VOLUME 31 NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 1 2013

Effect of occupational stress response on cardiovascular risks among young female nurses at departments of emergency, ICU and operating room in grade III-A general hospitals

Objective To investigate the effect of occupational stress on cardiovascular risks among young female nurses at departments of emergency,ICU and operating room of grade Ⅲ-A general hospital.Methods A total of 59 young female nurses from the departments of emergency,ICU and operating room of our hospital were regarded as the observation group,and another 46 females of the same age and departments were regarded as the control group.All of them were evaluated by Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition (OSI-R) and their indicators of blood glucose,blood fat and blood pressure were measured.Results The scores of ORQ (156.41 ± 33.18 ) and PRQ (97.55 ± 20.43) in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group [ ( 132.29 ± 30.43 ),( 82.36 ± 18.27),respectively ],and the differences were statistically significant (t =2.390,2.216;P ＜0.01 ).There were significant differences in terms of factors of ORQ and PRQ,FPG,TG and blood pressure between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions Severity of stress response may increase indicators of blood pressure,blood glucose and blood cholesterol of young female nurses at departments of emergency,ICU and operating room of grade Ⅲ - A general hospitals. Key words: Nurse; Emergency,hospital; ICU; Operating room; Cardiovascular disease; Occupational stress; Risks; Grade Ⅲ-A general hospital

WORKING THE NIGHT SHIFT CAUSES INCREASED VASCULAR STRESS AND DELAYED RECOVERY IN YOUNG WOMEN

Shiftwork has been associated with elevated blood pressure (BP) and decreased heart-rate variability (HRV), factors that may increase the long-term risk of cardiovascular-related mortality and morbidity. This study explored the effect of shiftwork on dynamic changes in autonomic control of HRV (cardiac stress), systolic BP and diastolic BP, i.e., SBP and DBP (vascular stress), and recovery in the same subjects working different shifts. By studying the same subjects, the authors could reduce the effect of possible contribution of between-subject variation from genetic predisposition and environmental factors. The authors recruited 16 young female nurses working rotating shifts—day (08:00–16:00 h), evening (16:00–00:00 h), and night (00:00–08:00 h)—and 6 others working the regular day shift. Each nurse received simultaneous and repeated 48-h ambulatory electrocardiography and BP monitoring during their work day and the following off-duty day. Using a linear mixed-effect model to adjust for day shift, the results of the repeated-measurements and self-comparisons found significant shift differences in vascular stress. While working the night shift, the nurses showed significant increases in vascular stress, with increased SBP of 9.7 mm Hg. The changes of SBP and DBP seemed to peak during waking time at the same time on the day off as they did on the working day. Whereas HRV profiles usually returned to baseline level after each shift, the SBP and DBP of night-shift workers did not completely return to baseline levels the following off-duty day (p < .001). The authors concluded that although the nurses may recover from cardiac stress the first day off following a night shift, they do not completely recover from increases in vascular stress on that day. (Author correspondence: jdwang@ntu.edu.tw)

Dynamic Blood Pressure Changes and Recovery Under Different Work Shifts in Young Women

Some studies have reported that shift work can affect blood pressure (BP), but few have studied recovery from BP changes occurring during different shifts. We recruited 16 young female nurses working rotating shifts and six working the regular day shift. All received repeated ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) during their workdays and following day off. Our linear mixed-effect model showed that both systolic and diastolic BPs were significantly decreased during sleeping period and significantly increased while on working period, on a work day, but increased during sleeping period after a night shift or evening shift. BP measurements that changed after evening shift usually returned to baseline on consecutive off-duty day after day shift, but they did not completely return to baseline after a night shift (P < 0.05). We also found 69% of those working rotating shifts had at least changed once in dipper/nondipper status. The rates of change in dipper/nondipper status between work day and off-duty day were 33, 44, 50, and 38% for nurses worked in outpatient clinic, night shift, evening shift, and day shift, respectively. Shift work is significantly associated with BP and possibly dipper/nondipper status in young female nurses. Except for those working night shifts, BP levels returned to baseline the off-duty day after day shift. We recommend that potential influence of shift work be considered when evaluating a person's BP.

Work Characteristics and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Women

The authors prospectively investigated associations between potentially stressful work characteristics and type 2 diabetes incidence in 62,574 young and middle-aged women, aged 29-46 years at baseline in 1993, from the Nurses' Health Study II; 365 cases of type 2 diabetes accrued over 6 years of follow-up. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to simultaneously evaluate associations of hours per week in paid employment, years of rotating night-shift work, and job strain with incidence of type 2 diabetes. In multivariate-adjusted analyses, women working less than 20 hours per week had a lower risk of diabetes (relative risk = 0.80, 95% confidence interval: 0.50, 1.30), and those working overtime (> or =41 hours/week) had an elevated risk of diabetes (relative risk = 1.23, 95% confidence interval: 0.98, 1.55) compared with women working 21-40 hours/week (referent) in paid employment (p(trend) = 0.03). In subsequent analysis, the elevated association appeared stronger in unmarried women (p(interaction) = 0.02). A positive association between years in rotating night-shift work and diabetes was mediated entirely by body weight. Job strain was unrelated to risk of type 2 diabetes. In conclusion, working overtime predicted a slightly elevated risk of type 2 diabetes in young and middle-aged female nurses.

Job strain in relation to ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability among female nurses

This study examined the effects of exposure to job strain on independent predictors of cardiovascular disease (ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability). The participants comprised a homogeneous group of 159 healthy female nurses [mean age 35.9 (SD 8.5) years]. The choice of this population minimized variance attributable to gender, socioeconomic status, and work characteristics. Job demands, decision latitude, and social support were measured with the Karasek job content questionnaire, which was administered twice with an average interval of 12.2 months. The nurses' scores for job demands and decision latitude on both occasions were used to define their job-strain category. Ambulatory blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability were assessed on a workday and a day of leisure. No effect on the ambulatory levels of blood pressure, heart rate, or heart rate variability was found for job strain by itself or in interaction with social support. In addition, job strain was not associated with differences in short-term or long-term physiological recovery during sleep after a workday or a day of leisure. High job demand was associated with higher systolic blood pressure at work and with higher diastolic blood pressure at work, but the latter association was found only when decision latitude was concurrently high, rather than low. High job strain among young female nurses is not associated with an unfavorable ambulatory cardiovascular profile. The robust effect of job strain on male health appears to be less apparent for women.

Night‐Shift Work Related Problems in Young Female Nurses in Japan

Night‐Shift Work Related Problems in Young Female Nurses in Japan: Takashi Ohida, et al . Department of Public Health Administration, National Institute of Public Health—Background: The relationship of night‐shift work to sleep problems and work performance was examined in young female nurses in 11 hospitals in Japan. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by means of anonymous self‐administered questionnaires, carried out in July 1999. Subjects were 620 female nurses (Average age: 23.9) who started their careers in April 1997 and continued working in the same hospitals for two years and three months until the time of the survey. A questionnaire consisting mainly of items concerning sleep disorders from the Japanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was distributed to the subjects. Results: Significant associations were observed between working on night shift and the use of alcoholic beverages to help induce sleep, and between working on night shift and daytime drowsiness. Significant differences were also observed between two and three‐shift systems with regard to subjective sleep quality. Moreover, average hours of sleep were significantly associated with three related sleep items: subjective sleep quality, difficulty in getting to sleep, and daytime drowsiness. Conclusion: Results suggest that in Japanese shift‐work systems, sufficient sleep hours are needed for nurses who work night shift to ensure good quality of sleep and consequently better services for patients.

看護婦の夜間勤務と睡眠問題に関する研究

看護婦の夜間勤務と睡眠問題に関する研究