SynthesisScandinavian journal of work, environment & health2025
Night-shift work and susceptibility to infectious diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Shift work and the risk of incident hospital-treated infections: quantifying the role of lifestyle factors.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Night-shift work is associated with peripheral clock gene dysregulation and circadian transcriptional network remodeling in female healthcare workers.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesA growing body of research on infection susceptibility among night-shift workers has emerged, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a comprehensive overview is still lacking. Therefore, this review aimed to synthesize the evidence on the association between night-shift work and susceptibility to infectious diseases.
methodsEmbase and PsycINFO were systematically searched for studies published up to September 2024. Studies were included if they comprised a working population, night-shift workers were compared to non-shift workers, and the outcome was an infectious disease. Results were descriptively synthesized for common respiratory infections (flu and common cold), SARS-CoV-2 infection, and other infections. Pooled effect estimates were calculated using random-effects meta-analysis.
resultsIn total, 16 articles describing 14 studies among 191 320 workers were included. Based on 4 studies, night-shift work was not associated with a significantly increased risk of common respiratory infections [odds ratio (OR) 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.97-1.27, I
conclusionsThis systematic review and meta-analysis showed that night-shift work was associated with an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not of common respiratory infections. To address the lack of high-certainty evidence, more studies are needed that apply a prospective design with appropriate adjustment for confounding factors and more extensive information on night-shift work exposure.
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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.