Assessment of Relationship between Shift Work and Hypertension in Mahshahr Petrochemical Ataff: A Longitudinal Study

Shift work as a pervasive phenomenon in various industrial sectors is one of the most stressful factors in the workplace. Considering the contradictory reports on the relationship of shift work and hypertension, the main objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between these two variables among petrochemical industry staff of Mahshahr, Iran.
In this longitudinal study, 3254 petrochemical staff were investigated during 2008-2011. According to work schedule, shift workers were divided into two groups of shift work and day work (1872 day workers and 1382 shift workers). The aim of this research was to assess the effect of shift work on hypertension by adjusting confounding variables such as gender, age, body mass index, and smoking. The data were analyzed using a random-effects logistic regression model.
Of 3254 (3142 males and 112 females) subjects, 37.85% (860 subject) were hypertensive. The random effects model, with controlling covariates, showed no significant relationship between shift work and hypertension (OR=1.04, 95% CI= (0.98, 1.10). Moreover, the variance of the random effects was significant.
Generally, according to the results of this study, shift work is not a significant risk factor for hypertension.