Can Night Shift Work Affect Biological Age? Hints from a Cross-Sectional Study on Hospital Female Nurses

Michele Carugno, Cristina Maggioni, Vincenzo Ruggiero, Eleonora Crespi, Paola Monti, Luca Ferrari and Angela Cecilia Pesatori
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Michele Carugno: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via San Barnaba, 8, IT-20122 Milan, Italy
Cristina Maggioni: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via San Barnaba, 8, IT-20122 Milan, Italy
Vincenzo Ruggiero: Faculty of Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono, 7, IT-20122 Milan, Italy
Eleonora Crespi: Occupational Health Unit, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Via Antonio di Rudinì, 8, IT-20142 Milan, Italy
Paola Monti: Occupational Health Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Via San Barnaba, 8, IT-20122 Milan, Italy
Luca Ferrari: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via San Barnaba, 8, IT-20122 Milan, Italy
Angela Cecilia Pesatori: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via San Barnaba, 8, IT-20122 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-6

Abstract: Disruption of age-related processes seems to play a relevant role in health effects related to night shift (NS) work. We aim to verify whether NS work can influence biological age (BA), estimated through Zbie?-Piekarska’s epigenetic signature, based on methylation of five CpG sites in ELOVL2 , C1orf132 / MIR29B2C , TRIM59 , KLF14, and FHL2 . Forty-six female nurses working in NS were matched by age and length of employment with 51 female colleagues not working in NS. Each subject filled in a questionnaire (including the Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) index to assess job stress) and gave a blood sample. Age acceleration (AA) was estimated by regressing BA on chronological age and taking the residuals. Multivariate linear regression models were applied. BA was not associated with NS. However, we did observe an increase in AA per each year in NS in subjects with overweight/obesity (? = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.05; 0.87, p = 0.03), experiencing work-related stress (? = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.10; 1.06, p = 0.018), or both (? = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.03; 1.29, p = 0.041). Although based on a small sample size, our findings suggest an increased BA only among hypersusceptible subjects and is worth further investigation, also in light of recent results suggesting a higher breast cancer risk in women with increased AA.

Keywords: working schedule; epigenetics; biological aging; DNA methylation; overweight; obesity; work-related stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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