Shift Work and Disability Pension
Author Information
Author(s): F Tüchsen, K Christensen, B Lund, H Feveile
Primary Institution: National Research Centre for the Working Environment
Hypothesis
Is shift work associated with an increased risk of disability pension?
Conclusion
Shift work might be moderately associated with disability pension among women; however, more powerful studies are needed to establish the possible association.
Supporting Evidence
- Shift work predicted disability among women after adjusting for various factors.
- 253 new disability pensions were observed among women during the study.
- The hazard ratio for women was 1.39 after adjusting for age and health.
- Shift work was not associated with disability among men.
- The study followed participants for a total of 56,903 person-years at risk for women.
Takeaway
Working night shifts may make women more likely to get a disability pension, but we need more studies to be sure.
Methodology
Cohorts of shift and day workers were followed for incidence of disability pension using the Cox proportional hazards model.
Potential Biases
Adjustment for confounding factors may lead to over-adjustment and underestimate the true risk.
Limitations
The study lacks information on how long individuals have worked shifts and may have collapsed different shift systems into one group, which could dilute exposure contrast.
Participant Demographics
The study included 3980 women and 4025 men, all employees aged 18-59.
Statistical Information
P-Value
1.34 for women, 0.93 for men
Confidence Interval
95% CI 1.07 to 1.82 for women
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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