ArticleJournal of sleep research2021
Shift work is associated with increased risk of COVID-19: Findings from the UK Biobank cohort.
Article in Journal of sleep research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Night-shift work and susceptibility to infectious diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2025Pooled it
- Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic literature review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Biological Rhythms in Coronavirus Pneumonia Pathogenesis.Journal of biological rhythms · 2026Article
- Shift work and the risk of incident hospital-treated infections: quantifying the role of lifestyle factors.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- The effect of sleep and shift work on the primary immune response to messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccination.Journal of sleep research · 2025Article
- BioClocks UK: driving robust cycles of discovery to impact.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Circadian de(regulation) in physiology: implications for disease and treatment.Genes & development · 2024Review
- Association between Sleep Duration, Social Jetlag, and the Metabolic Syndrome by Shift Works.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Content and face validity of Workplace COVID-19 Knowledge & Stigma Scale (WoCKSS).BMC public health · 2024Article
- Circadian immunity from bench to bedside: a practical guide.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2024Review
- Circadian Disruption in Night Shift Work and Its Association with Chronic Pulmonary Diseases.Advanced biology · 2023Review
- Circadian regulation of pulmonary disease: the importance of timing.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2023Review
- Biological rhythms in COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in an observational cohort study of 1.5 million patients.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Observational
- Sleep and circadian rhythm disruption alters the lung transcriptome to predispose to viral infection.iScience · 2023Article
- UK biobank: Enhanced assessment of the epidemiology and long-term impact of coronavirus disease-2019.Cambridge prisms. Precision medicine · 2023Review
- Analysis and mapping of global research publications on shift work (2012-2021).Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2022Article
- Circadian Disruption and Consequences on Innate Immunity and Inflammatory Response.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- When the clock ticks wrong with COVID-19.Clinical and translational medicine · 2022Review
- Circadian misalignment is associated with Covid-19 infection.Sleep medicine · 2022Article
- Understanding the association between sleep, shift work and COVID-19 vaccine immune response efficacy: Protocol of the S-CORE study.Journal of sleep research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the strong evidence on circadian rhythm disruption in shift workers and consequent increased vulnerability for infection, longitudinal association between shift work and COVID-19 infection is unexplored. In this study, data from UK Biobank participants who were tested for COVID-19 infection (16 March to 7 September 2020) were used to explore the link between shift work and COVID-19 infection. Using the baseline occupational information, participants were categorised as non-shift workers, day shift workers, mixed shift workers and night shift workers. Multivariable regression models were used to assess the association between shift work and COVID-19 infection. Among the 18,221 participants (9.4% positive cases), 11.2% were health workers, and 16.4% were involved in shift-work-based jobs. Ethnic minorities (18%) and people in night-shift-based jobs (18.1%) had a significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19 infection than others. Adjusted logistics regression model suggest that, compared with their counterparts, people employed in a night-shift-based job were 1.85-fold (95% CI: 1.42-2.41) more likely to have COVID-19 infection. Sensitivity analysis focusing on people working in a non-healthcare setting suggests that people in shift-work-based jobs had 1.81-fold (95% CI: 1.04%-3.18%) higher odds of COVID-19 infection than their counterparts. Shift workers, particularly night shift workers, irrespective of their occupational group, seem to be at high risk of COVID-19 infection. If similar results are obtained from other studies, then it would mandate to revisit the criteria for defining high-risk groups for COVID-19 and implementing appropriate interventions to protect people in shift-based jobs.
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