Do Rotating Night Shifts Change Nurses’ Nutritional Status? A Cross-Sectional Study

Aug 11, 2021Journal of the American Nutrition Association

Do Rotating Night Shifts Affect Nurses' Nutrition?

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Abstract

Among 44 nurses working rotating night shifts, most were evening chronotype and exhibited poor sleep quality.

Shift work is associated with higher daily energy intake and lower total daily energy expenditure.
Consumption of fiber-rich foods decreases, while intake of fats, sweets, and cereals increases during night shifts.
Women on night shifts had higher carbohydrate, total fat, and cholesterol intake.
All nurses showed increased saturated fat and calcium intake during night shifts.
Night shift nurses had lower water intake but higher tea consumption, especially in women.
Significant correlations exist between shift work duration and body mass index, waist circumference, waist-height ratio, and body fat percentage.

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OBJECTIVE: Shift work disrupts circadian rhythms through environmental factors such as disruption of the light-dark and rest-activity cycle. This study aims to evaluate the nutritional status, circadian phenotype, sleep quality, and anthropometric measurements in nurses working in rotating night shifts.

METHOD: The study included 44 nurses working in rotating night shifts. Physical activity records for 4 days and 24-hour dietary recalls for 7 days were taken. To evaluate the circadian phenotypes and sleep quality, the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index were used, respectively.

RESULTS: Most nurses were evening chronotype and had poor sleep quality. Shift work was associated with higher daily energy intake and lower total daily energy expenditure ( < 0.05). On the night shifts, while fiber-rich foods such as beans and fruit consumption decrease, the consumption of fats, sweets, and cereals increases. While carbohydrates, total fat, and cholesterol intake were higher in only women on the night shift ( < 0.05), saturated fat and calcium intake were higher in all nurses ( < 0.05). While the water intake of the nurses was lower on the night shift ( < 0.05), tea intake was higher in women ( < 0.05). A correlation was found between total shift work duration, body mass index ( = 0.525), waist circumference ( = 0.577), waist-height ratio ( = 0.584), and body fat percentage ( = 0.513) ( < 0.001). p p p p p r r r r p

CONCLUSIONS: Nurses should be encouraged to ensure adequate water intake and to make healthy food choices during the night shift to maintain health and work performance.

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Do Rotating Night Shifts Change Nurses’ Nutritional Status? A Cross-Sectional Study

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