Digestive disturbances in shift-workers: a clinical statistical investigation

Abstract

In order to give a clarifying contribution about the probable relationship between shift-work and digestive diseases the authors have conducted a clinical and anamnestical investigation on digestive disturbances and alimentary habits of shift-workers comparing them with non shift-workers. The former group of subjects is engaged in very different activities conducted in variable working environments, with shift rhythms which are always disordered, sometime are imposed by the working Companies and sometimes chosen on the basis of personal necessities. The most interesting result of this study is represented by the confirmation of statistical significance among the larger incidence percentage of digestive disturbances between shift and non shift-workers. Moreover, statistical differences have been remarked among the different groups of shift-workers examinated. For these reasons the authors believe that shift-work is per se responsible of digestive diseases in the workers engaged to it and they also think that it is very important to distinguish the kind of shift work which may produce environmental, psychological and motivational differences.