Korean J Occup Health Nurs.  2009 May;18(1):14-21.

The Effect of Shift Work on the Diurnal Rhythm of Blood Pressure in Nurses

• Lee AS
• Rhee SJ
• Kim NH

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was performed to investigate the effect of shift work on diurnal blood pressure (BP) pattern in nurses. Method: We studied 20 healthy nurses engaged in 3 shift work. 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring was performed to each nurse two times during the day and night shift. Five nurses were excluded because of inadequate BP measurement.
RESULTS
All subjects were female. The mean age was 27.4 years (range: 23?33 years) and mean body mass index was 19.7 Kg/m2 (range: 18.0-21.2 Kg/m2). The changes of systolic BP (17.8+/-9.1 vs. 13.2+/- 4.7%, p=0.031), diastolic BP (22.3+/-8.7 vs. 17.3+/-9.0%, p=0.061), and heart rate (25.2+/- 5.2 vs. 12.5+/-8.7%, p=0.001) during the sleeping period were decreased after a night shift compared with day shift. The non-dipper group significantly increased from 20% to 40% after a night shift (p=0.018).
CONCLUSION
Working night shift is significantly associated with non-dipper status in nurses.

Keyword

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; Circadian rhythm; Shift work

MeSH Terms

Blood Pressure
Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory
Body Mass Index
Circadian Rhythm
Female
Heart Rate
Humans