Shift work and health
Shift work—essentially anything other than a regular daytime work schedule—makes up a large part of the Canadian economy. It includes permanent evening or night work, rotating shifts and split shifts. IWH research explores the effects of shift work on the health and safety of workers, and what can be done to decrease these effects.
Journal article
Journal article
The associations of shift work, sleep quality, and incidence of hypertension in Ontario adults: a population-based study
Published: Canadian Journal of Cardiology, March 2021
Journal article
Journal article
The impact of night shift work on breast cancer: results from the Burden of Occupational Cancer in Canada Study
Published: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, June 2019
At Work article
Injured shift workers report poorer health outcomes than injured day workers: study
An IWH study finds injured workers who work shifts are no more likely to leave their jobs than injured workers who work standard shifts, despite being in poorer health.
Published: November 2015
Video
Video
Understanding injury risk and recovery among shift workers
Research evidence has been accumulating on the adverse health consequences of night, evening and rotating shift work. New research is now suggesting that, not only are shift workers at greater risk of work injury, they are more likely to have a harder time recovering should an injury occur. What's more, injury rates don't improve when shift workers switch into regular 9-to-5 work schedules, as Mustard Post-doctoral fellow Dr. Imelda Wong explains.
Published: November 2015
IWH in the media
Adequate rest and recovery critical to help workers avoid burnout
Experts say significant stretches of overtime without adequate time for recovery result in diminished work performance and pose potentially serious health risks. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH)'s Dr. Cameron Mustard comments on risks of mistakes and fatigue
Published: The Ottawa Citizen, September 2015
At Work article
Risk of work injury linked to night, evening shifts still high after switching to days
IWH study finds those who move into or out of shift work face the highest risks of work-related injury
Published: November 2014
IWH in the media
Will shift work age my brain?
There is plenty of evidence that it harms health, but a new report claims that 10 years of shift work ages your brain by an extra 6.5 years. So should you be worried? asks Luisa Dillner in an article that cites Institute for Work & Health.
Published: The Guardian, November 2014
At Work article
At Work article
Night and evening shifts linked to higher risk of injuries: study
Higher injury rates found across age, sex and job type in rare study looking at risk levels by time of day
Published: July 2013
At Work article
At Work article
Female nurses working nights weigh [slightly] more than those working days
Body mass index scores are slightly higher among female nurses working night shifts (or a mix of day, evening and night shifts) than among those working regular day shifts, according to a recent study from the Institute for Work & Health. But we don’t yet know if this difference is important.
Published: April 2013
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Work injury risk by time of day in Ontario
In this presentation, Cam Mustard and Andrea Chambers provide a summary of the preliminary findings of a study that examined the incidence of work-related injury and illness in the Ontario labour force across the 24-hour clock. They also review the study methods. Two data sources were used (WSIB lost-time claims and records of non-scheduled visits to Ontario emergency departments), while information on hours worked was obtained from Statistics Canada sources.
Published: October 2011