Relationship of Shift Work to Gastrointestinal Disorders in Hospital Nurses

Eun-Ju Kim; Hye-Sun Jung; Eun-hi Choi

doi:10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.4.172

Korean J Health Promot > Volume 14(4); 2014 > Article

Kim, Jung, and Choi: Relationship of Shift Work to Gastrointestinal Disorders in Hospital Nurses

Original Article

Korean Journal of Health Promotion 2014;14(4):172-179.

Published online: January 20, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.4.172

Relationship of Shift Work to Gastrointestinal Disorders in Hospital Nurses

¹Seoul ST. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

²College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

³Kyungbok University, Seoul, Korea

Eun-Ju Kim¹, Hye-Sun Jung^2,, Eun-hi Choi³

Corresponding author：Hye-Sun Jung, PhD College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea
Tel: 82-2-2258-7368, Fax: 82-2-532-3820 E-mail: hyesun@catholic.ac.kr

Received May 12, 2014 Accepted September 20, 2014

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

This study researched the relationship between shift work and one of its relevant health problems, functional gastrointestinal disorders. The study targeted nurses working at a university hospital, and compared the differences in gastrointestinal disorders of shift workers and non-shift workers and identified causes that significantly influence these symptoms.

Methods

In August 2013, a self-report survey was conducted on nurses working at a university hospital. Among those sent out, 1,201 responded and 851 were used for the final analysis.

Results

It was shown that the frequency of gastrointestinal disorders in shift workers was 1.881 times higher than that of non-shift workers. Factors that influenced gastrointestinal disorders included age, marital status, work duration, type of employment, job satisfaction, and perceived health status. Gastrointestinal disorders were seen more often with older age, being married, longer duration of employment, non-regular worker, low job satisfaction, bad perceived health status, and shift works.

Conclusions

To prevent gastrointestinal disorders in nurses who work shifts, a health checkup system should be in place for clinical nurses who are of older age and have longer employment records. To decrease the causes of gastrointestinal disorders, campaigns suggesting regular diet and quitting alcohol use should be held consistently. Also, a category related to gastrointestinal disorders should be added to the employee health checkup for nurses with long work experience.

Keywords: Shift work, Nurses, Gastrointestinal disorders

Table 1.

Characteristics of the subjects

Characteristics	Shift workers (N=613)	Non-shift workers (N=238)	χ²	P
Age, y
≤29	448 (89.4)	53 (10.6)	247.124	<0.001
30–39	152 (58.5)	108 (41.5)
≥40	13 (14.4)	77 (85.3)
Marital status
Unmarried	525 (85.5)	89 (14.5)	198.625	<0.001
Married	88 (37.1)	149 (62.9)
Duration of employment, y
<5	384 (91.2)	37 (8.8)	272.350	<0.001
5–10	182 (73.7)	65 (26.3)
≥10	47 (25.7)	136 (74.3)
Job title
Staff	600 (72.9)	223 (27.1)	9.422	0.002
Charge nurse	13 (46.4)	15 (53.6)
Type of employment
Regular	595 (79.9)	150 (27.1)	182.156	<0.001
Non-regular	18 (17.0)	88 (53.6)
Job satisfaction
Good	420 (65.2)	224 (34.8)	61.047	<0.001
Bad	193 (93.2)	14 (6.8)
Alcohol use
Yes	295 (76.0)	93 (24.0)	5.658	0.017
No	318 (68.7)	145 (31.3)
Physical activity
Yes	320 (72.4)	122 (27.6)	0.061	0.805
No	293 (71.6)	116 (28.4)
Perceived health status
Good	390 (66.6)	196 (33.4)	28.052	<0.001
Bad	223 (84.2)	42 (15.8)

Values are presented as number (%).

Table 2.

Gastrointestinal disorders

Characteristics	Shift workers (n=613)	Non-shift workers (n=238)	χ²	P
GI disorder
Yes	257 (41.9)	66 (27.7)	14.667	<0.001
No	356 (58.1)	172 (72.3)
Abdominal discomfort
Yes	168 (27.4)	41 (17.2)	9.588	0.002
No	445 (72.6)	197 (82.8)
Anorexia
Yes	87 (14.2)	22 (9.2)	3.760	0.053
No	526 (85.8)	216 (90.8)
Abdominal pain
Yes	123 (20.1)	31 (13.0)	5.733	0.017
No	490 (79.9)	207 (87.0)

Values are presented as number (%).

Abbreviation: GI, gastrointestinal.

Table 3.

Prevalence of GI disorders according to the characteristics of the subjects

Characteristics	GI disorders (				GI disorders (No)
Characteristics	Shift workers	Non- shift workers	χ²	P	Shift workers	Non- shift workers	χ²	P
Age, y
≤29	196 (91.6)	18 (8.4)	74.563	<0.001	252 (87.8)	35 (12.2)	160.277	<0.001
30–39	58 (63.0)	34 (37.0)			94 (56.0)	74 (44.0)
≥40	3 (17.6)	14 (82.4)			10 (13.7)	63 (86.3)
Marital status
Not married	222 (87.7)	31 (12.3)	48.052	<0.001	303 (83.9)	58 (16.1)	141.635	<0.001
Married	35 (50.0)	35 (50.0)			53 (31.7)	114 (68.3)
Duration of employment, y
<5	162 (91.5)	15 (8.5)	67.874	<0.001	222 (91.0)	22 (9.0)	192.025	<0.001
5–10	77 (78.6)	21 (21.4)			105 (70.5)	44 (29.5)
≥10	18 (37.5)	30 (62.5)			29 (21.5)	106 (78.5)
Job title
Staff	252 (80.3)	62 (19.7)	3.283	0.070	348 (68.4)	161 (31.6)	5.752	0.016
Charge nurse	5 (55.6)	4 (44.4)			8 (42.1)	11 (57.9)
Type of employment	t
Regular	253 (85.2)	44 (14.8)	71.643	<0.001	342 (76.3)	106 (23.7)	105.994	<0.001
Non-regular	4 (15.4)	22 (84.6)			14 (17.5)	66 (82.5)
Job satisfaction
Good	168 (73.0)	62 (27.0)	20.907	<0.001	252 (60.9)	162 (39.1)	37.508	<0.001
Bad	89 (95.7)	4 (4.3)			104 (91.2)	10 (8.8)
Alcohol use
Yes	133 (82.6)	28 (17.4)	1.827	0.176	162 (71.4)	65 (28.6)	2.816	0.093
No	124 (76.5)	38 (23.5)			194 (64.5)	107 (35.5)
Physical activity
Yes	130 (83.3)	26 (16.7)	2.633	0.105	190 (66.4)	96 (33.6)	0.279	0.597
No	127 (76.0)	40 (24.0)			166 (68.6)	76 (31.4)
Perceived health stat	us
Good	131 (76.2)	41 (23.8)	4.418	0.036	259 (62.6)	155 (37.4)	20.653	<0.001
Bad	126 (83.4)	25 (16.6)			97 (85.1)	17 (14.9)

Values are presented as number (%).

Abbreviation: GI, gastrointestinal.

Table 4.

Odds ratios for GI disorders

Characteristics	OR	95% CI	P
Age, y
≥40	1.000
30–39	3.202	1.835–5.587	<0.001
≤29	1.362	0.999–1.856	0.051
Marital status
Not married	1.000
Married	1.672	1.212–2.307	0.002
Duration of employment, y
≥10	1.000
5–10	2.040	1.392–2.989	<0.001
≤5	1.103	0.801–1.519	0.549
Job title
Charge nurse	1.000
Staff	1.302	0.582–2.914	0.520
Type of employment
Regular	1.000
Non-regular	2.040	1.280–3.251	0.003
Job satisfaction
Good	1.000
Bad	1.468	1.069–2.018	0.018
Alcohol use
No	1.000
Yes	1.318	0.998–1.740	0.052
Physical activity
No	1.000
Yes	1.265	0.959–1.670	0.097
Perceived health status
Good	1.000
Bad	3.188	2.359–4.309	<0.001
Work schedule
Non-shift work	1.000
Shift work	1.881	1.358–2.606	<0.001

Abbreviations: GI, gastrointestinal; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.

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