ArticleInternational archives of occupational and environmental health2021
Shift work, low-grade inflammation, and chronic pain: a 7-year prospective study.
Article in International archives of occupational and environmental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of Low Back Pain with Shift Work: A Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- The mediating effect of immune-inflammatory indices in shift work and hypertension: a cohort study in China.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2026Article
- Why sleep matters in chronic pain: evidence across the lifespan.EBioMedicine · 2026Review
- Night shift work and breast cancer: from etiopathology to precision risk analysis.NPJ breast cancer · 2025Review
- Development of a machine learning-based nomogram for predicting chronic postsurgical pain after uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
- Plasma Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokines in an Observational Chronic Low Back Pain Cohort.JOR spine · 2025Article
- Chronotherapy and intervertebral disc degeneration: understanding the role of circadian rhythm in degenerative processes.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Human immune and metabolic biomarker levels, and stress-biomarker associations, differ by season: Implications for biomedical health research.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Shiftwork, long working hours and markers of inflammation in a national US population-based sample of employed black and white men and women aged ≥45 years.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2023Article
- Association between urinary phthalate levels and chronic pain in US adults, 1999-2004: A nationally representative survey.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Article
- Sleep and circadian rhythms: pillars of health-a Keystone Symposia report.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe investigated prospective associations of shift work with chronic pain and C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation. Furthermore, we elucidated CRP as a possible mediator and/or moderator of effects of shift work on pain.
methodsData from a 7 years follow-up study were analyzed (N = 2323). Shift work and chronic pain of "neck/shoulder", "arm/hand", "upper back", "low back", "hip/leg/feet", and "other regions" were measured by questionnaires. "Chronic widespread pain", "number of chronic pain sites", and "any chronic pain" were computed. CRP was measured in serum samples. Logistic and Poisson regressions were conducted. Mediation was assessed by casual mediation analyses and moderation by the Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI).
resultsShift work was not associated with any chronic pain variable and no mediation was detected. CRP was associated with low back pain, hip/leg pain, and "number of pain sites", and also with the combination of shift work and CRP of 1-2.99 mg/L (compared to: no shiftwork and CRP < 1). Additionally, shiftwork and CRP 1-2.99 mg/L was associated with risk of "any chronic pain" (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.12, 2.85), which was not associated with CRP alone. Moderation analyses suggested the risks for "any chronic pain" and "number of pain regions" increased when individuals with elevated CRP worked shifts-beyond what the separate effects of CRP and shift would suggest.
conclusionsWe found no evidence of shift work in general affecting CRP or chronic pain. However, shift work and elevated CRP combined may influence chronic pain.
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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.