Night-time work and all-cause mortality in the general working population of Denmark
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- Night-time work and all-cause mortality in the general working population of Denmark
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Purpose
A recent study among female nurses in Denmark found an increased mortality among night-time workers, which has raised concerns about the sufficiency of the EU Working Time Directive. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between night-time work and all-cause mortality among full-time employees in the general workforce of Denmark.
Methods
Interview data from the Danish Labour Force Surveys, 1999–2013, were linked to national registers with individual-level data on occupation, industry, socioeconomic status (SES), emigrations and deaths. The participants (N = 159,933) were followed from the end of the calendar year of the interview until the end of 2014. Poisson regression was used to estimate rate ratios for all-cause mortality, with and without stratification by sex and socioeconomic status. A likelihood ratio test was used to test the overall null-hypothesis, which stated that the mortality rates were independent of night-time work, SES × night-time work and sex × night-time work.
Results
The likelihood ratio test did not reject the null hypothesis (p = 0.14). The rate ratio for all-cause mortality among employees with vs. without night-time work was estimated at 1.07 (95% CI 0.97–1.19) after adjustment for age, sex, SES, calendar time, weekly working hours and time passed since the start of follow-up.
Conclusions
The present study did not find any statistically significant associations between night-time work and all-cause mortality among employees in the general workforce of Denmark.
A recent study among female nurses in Denmark found an increased mortality among night-time workers, which has raised concerns about the sufficiency of the EU Working Time Directive. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between night-time work and all-cause mortality among full-time employees in the general workforce of Denmark.
Methods
Interview data from the Danish Labour Force Surveys, 1999–2013, were linked to national registers with individual-level data on occupation, industry, socioeconomic status (SES), emigrations and deaths. The participants (N = 159,933) were followed from the end of the calendar year of the interview until the end of 2014. Poisson regression was used to estimate rate ratios for all-cause mortality, with and without stratification by sex and socioeconomic status. A likelihood ratio test was used to test the overall null-hypothesis, which stated that the mortality rates were independent of night-time work, SES × night-time work and sex × night-time work.
Results
The likelihood ratio test did not reject the null hypothesis (p = 0.14). The rate ratio for all-cause mortality among employees with vs. without night-time work was estimated at 1.07 (95% CI 0.97–1.19) after adjustment for age, sex, SES, calendar time, weekly working hours and time passed since the start of follow-up.
Conclusions
The present study did not find any statistically significant associations between night-time work and all-cause mortality among employees in the general workforce of Denmark.
Original language | English |
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Journal | International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health |
Volume | 92 |
Issue number | 4 |
Pages (from-to) | 577-585 |
Number of pages | 9 |
ISSN | 0340-0131 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
- EU Working Time Directive, Hypothesis testing, Occupational health, Cohort study
Research areas
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