Shift Work and Related Health Problems among Medical and Diagnostic Staff of the General Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, 2012

Today, shift work is considered as a necessity in many jobs and for some 24-hour services the use of shift-work is growing. However, shift work can lead to physiological and psycho-social problems for shift workers. This study aimed to determine the effects of shift work on the associated health problems, together with the demographic and job characteristics underlying the problems, among the medical and diagnostic staff of the general teaching hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2012.This study was an applied, cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical one. The study employed a sample of 205 employees from the medical and diagnostic staff using stratified sampling proportional to the size and simple random sampling methods. Data were collected using the Survey of Shift workers (SOS) questionnaire, validity and reliability of which have already been confirmed. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software through ANOVA, Chi-square, Independent-Samples T-Test, as well as Pearson Correlation Coefficient. A P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results showed that among the demographic and job characteristics studied, the individual, family and social problems had significant associations with work schedules, shift work and job satisfaction. In addition, there were significant associations between musculoskeletal disorders and the satisfaction of shift work; cardiovascular disorders and marital status and occupation; digestive disorders and the work schedules; sleep disorders and the satisfaction of shift work; musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disorders and sleep disorders and age, job experience and shift work experience. And finally, there were significant associations among sleep disorders and age, job experience and the shift work experience. Based on the findings of this study, demographic characteristics such as age, marital status, as well as job characteristics can increase the individual, family and social problems, and cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, digestive and sleep disorders. Therefore, in order to reduce these problems and disorders, the following suggestions are made: allowing voluntary shifts for the staff, shortening the hours of night work, limiting the employment of older people in the shift work systems, etc.