ReviewOccupational medicine (Oxford, England)2011
Shift work and chronic disease: the epidemiological evidence.
Review in Occupational medicine (Oxford, England), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 249 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
249 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 627 citations in OpenAlex.
- The efficacy of interventions in the workplace promoting exercise and a healthy diet among shift workers: A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Shift work is significantly and positively associated with dementia: A meta-analysis study.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- What do we know about the effect of night-shift work on cardiovascular risk factors? An umbrella review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Differences between fixed day shift workers and rotating shift workers in gastrointestinal problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Industrial health · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of cohort studies including dose-response relationship between shift work and the risk of diabetes mellitus.European journal of epidemiology · 2019Pooled it
- Person-directed, non-pharmacological interventions for sleepiness at work and sleep disturbances caused by shift work.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- A meta-analysis including dose-response relationship between night shift work and the risk of colorectal cancer.Oncotarget · 2015Pooled it
- Job strain as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes: a pooled analysis of 124,808 men and women.Diabetes care · 2014Pooled it
- A randomized crossover trial assessing time of day snack consumption and resulting postprandial glycemic response in a real-life setting among healthy adults.Chronobiology international · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Pilot study of sleep and meal timing effects, independent of sleep duration and food intake, on insulin sensitivity in healthy individuals.Sleep health · 2018Trial
- Shift work and quality of sleep: effect of working in designed dynamic light.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Diurnal Variation and Impairment of Postprandial Glucose-Insulin Responses and Lipid Rhythms in Simulated Shift Work.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Hypertension in steelworkers: a global systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence and associated factors.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Review
- Article
- The role of circadian disruption, sleep dysregulation, lifestyle factors, and metabolic reprogramming in the pathogenesis and progression of ovarian cancer.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2026Review
- Working Hour Characteristics and Risk of Occupational Accidents - A Case-crossover Study of the Retail Sector.Safety and health at work · 2026Article
- Conserved structural motifs in PAS, LOV, and CRY proteins regulate circadian rhythms and are therapeutic targets.FEBS letters · 2026Review
189 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundShift work, including night work, has been hypothesized to increase the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Recent reviews of evidence relating to these hypotheses have focussed on specific diseases or potential mechanisms, but no general summary of the current data on shift work and chronic disease has been published.
methodsSystematic and critical reviews and recent original studies indexed in PubMed prior to 31 December 2009 were retrieved, aided by manual searches of reference lists. The main conclusions from reviews and principle results from recent studies are presented in text and tables.
resultsPublished evidence is suggestive but not conclusive for an adverse association between night work and breast cancer but limited and inconsistent for cancers at other sites and all cancers combined. Findings on shift work, in relation to risks of CVD, metabolic syndrome and diabetes are also suggestive but not conclusive for an adverse relationship.
conclusionsHeterogeneity of study exposures and outcomes and emphasis on positive but non-significant results make it difficult to draw general conclusions. Further data are needed for additional disease endpoints and study populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.