Effects of shift working and noise exposure on blood pressure in nurses

Shift-working is one of the most important problems among the nurses and co-exposure to noise can worsen this problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of shift working and noise exposure on blood pressure of nurses in hospitals in the south of Iran in 2019.
 

In this cross sectional and descriptive-analytical study all 350 nurses from three hospitals in the south of Fars province were enrolled and using a researcher made questionnaire necessary data including occupational data, number of day and night shifts per week, demographic characteristics, and nurses' life habits were collected. Noise pressure level, noise frequency analysis at the workstations, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured before and after the work shift. SPSS software version 19 was used to evaluate the relationship between these variables.

The mean noise pressure level in the Nurses' workstations before and after shift work was 51.67 and 69.27 dB, respectively. The highest equivalent noise pressure level was observed for nurses working in the delivery ward (mean: 64.33 dB-A). The average systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the nurses before and after the work shift was 104/ 66 and 109/ 70 mmHg, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of the number of night shifts per week in studied nurses were 1.49 ± 1.29. The results showed that increasing the level of noise and the number of night shifts per week increases the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the nurses (R2 = 0.79 and 0.86, respectively).

Noise emitted from different sources in hospitals and simultaneous shift working aggravates cardiovascular disorders in nurses. Therefore, managerial and engineering interventions are needed to prevent adverse effects of noise and shift working.