Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jan 29:14:47.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-47.

The Nightingale study: rationale, study design and baseline characteristics of a prospective cohort study on shift work and breast cancer risk among nurses

Anouk Pijpe, Pauline Slottje, Cres van Pelt, Floor Stehmann, Hans Kromhout, Flora E van Leeuwen, Roel C H Vermeulen, Matti A Rookus  1
Affiliations

The Nightingale study: rationale, study design and baseline characteristics of a prospective cohort study on shift work and breast cancer risk among nurses

Anouk Pijpe et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Evidence for the carcinogenicity of shift work in humans is limited because of significant heterogeneity of the results, thus more in-depth research in needed. The Nightingale Study is a nationwide prospective cohort study on occupational exposures and risks of chronic diseases among female nurses and focuses on the potential association between shift work and risk of breast cancer. The study design, methods, and baseline characteristics of the cohort are described.

Methods/design: The source population for the cohort comprised 18 to 65 year old women who were registered as having completed training to be a nurse in the nationwide register for healthcare professionals in the Netherlands. Eligible women were invited to complete a web-based questionnaire including full job history, a detailed section on all domains of shift work (shift system, cumulative exposure, and shift intensity) and potential confounding factors, and an informed consent form for linkage with national (disease) registries. Women were also asked to donate toenail clippings as a source of DNA for genetic analyses. Between October 6, 2011 and February 1, 2012, 31% of the 192,931 women who were invited to participate completed the questionnaire, yielding a sample size of 59,947 cohort members. The mean age of the participants was 46.9 year (standard deviation 11.0 years). Toenail clippings were provided by 23,439 participants (39%).

Discussion: Results from the Nightingale Study will contribute to the scientific evidence of potential shift work-related health risks among nurses and will help develop preventive measures and policy aimed at reducing these risks.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean number of night shifts per month and number of consecutive night shifts by calendar period (1960–2011). Legend: red dots indicate the number of nights worked per month; blue squares indicate the number of consecutive nights worked.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequency of self-reported other occupational exposures among 59,947 Nightingale Study participants. Legend: Dark part of bar indicates the proportion of participants who answered ‘yes’ to the following question ‘Have you ever worked with …… regularly for at least 6 months?
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Harma M, Kecklund G. Shift work and health - how to proceed? Scand J Work Environ Health. 2010;36(2):81–84. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.2902. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang XS, Armstrong ME, Cairns BJ, Key TJ, Travis RC. Shift work and chronic disease: the epidemiological evidence. Occup Med (Lond) 2011;61(2):78–89. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqr001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cohen M, Lippman M, Chabner B. Role of pineal gland in aetiology and treatment of breast cancer. Lancet. 1978;2(8094):814–816. - PubMed
    1. Stevens RG. Electric power use and breast cancer: a hypothesis. Am J Epidemiol. 1987;125(4):556–561. - PubMed
    1. Straif K, Baan R, Grosse Y, Secretan B, El Ghissassi F, Bouvard V, Altieri A, Benbrahim-Tallaa L, Cogliano V. Carcinogenicity of shift-work, painting, and fire-fighting. Lancet Oncol. 2007;8(12):1065–1066. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(07)70373-X. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types