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. 2022 Feb 24:16:805039.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.805039. eCollection 2022.

Executive Performance Is Associated With Rest-Activity Rhythm in Nurses Working Rotating Shifts

Xiuli Zhao  1 , Quan Tang  2   3 , Zhengzhi Feng  3 , Hóngyi Zhào  4
Affiliations

Executive Performance Is Associated With Rest-Activity Rhythm in Nurses Working Rotating Shifts

Xiuli Zhao et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Purpose: Rest-activity rhythms (RAR) is one of the most fundamental biological patterns that influence basic physical and mental health, as well as working performance. Nowadays, with the utilization of actigraphy device in detecting and analyzing RAR objectively, evidence has confirmed that RAR could be interrupted by shift work. Nurses need to participate shift work in their daily routine. The aim of the present study is to identify the RAR of nurses working rotating shifts and find out the relationship between RAR and executive function.

Methods: A total of 11 female nurses on day-shift (DS), 11 female nurses on rotating-shift (RS) were recruited. Demographic features, non-parametric variables of RAR as well as sleep variables according to actigraphy data, and a series of cognitive function evaluations during work time were collected.

Results: The Student's t-test comparison revealed that RS group nurses showed significant shorter total sleep time (TST), lower level of interdaily stability (IS) and relative amplitude (RA), as well as poorer executive performance compared with DS nurses. The linear regression analysis demonstrated that several aspects of executive performance such as choice reaction test (CRT) (reflecting attention and concentration) and trail making test (TMT) -B (reflecting cognitive flexibility) were associated with IS in RS group nurses.

Conclusion: These results elucidated that RAR was disrupted for nurses working rotating shifts, and executive performance was associated with IS from day to day in nurses working rotating shifts.

Keywords: executive functions; non-parametric analysis; nurse; rest-activity rhythm; shift work.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
An example of a participant’s actogram, raw actigraphy data along with rest-activity rhythm (A) and sleep intervals (B) across the 24-h day.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Scatter graphs demonstrating the relationship between IS and CRT (A), as well as IS and TMT-B (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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