The Effect of Shift Work on Lifestyle, Mental Health and Physical Health Status of Footwear Factory Workers: A Comparison between Night Shifts and Day Shifts

A number of factory workers experience various health problems in the form of work-related stress, disturbance in sleep quality, nicotine and alcohol dependence and work-related musculoskeletal discomfort and pain. Hence a need was felt to understand the problems related to life style, mental and physical health of the footwear factory workers and analyse the impact of day and night work shifts on these factors.

214 (day shift-107, night shift-107) male subjects, were assessed using the following

Occupational Stress Index

Nordic questionnaire

Visual Analogue Scale

Pittsburgh sleep quality index

AUDIT questionnaire

Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence

Among night shift workers (NSW), 5.60% had low, 42.1% had moderate and 52.3% had high nicotine dependence (HND). Among dayshift workers (DSW), 83.3% had low, 13.1% had moderate and 3.7% had HND. Among NSW, 78.50% had low risk and 21.50% had high risk for alcohol dependence. Among DSW, 15.90% had low risk and 84.10% had high risk for alcohol dependence. Among NSW, 72.90% had poor and 27.10% good sleep quality. Among DSW 28% had poor and 72% had good sleep quality. High stress level was found in NSW as compared to DSW (day-55.23±10.20, night-61.1±12.27). Maximum workers reported discomfort and pain in the wrists/hands, shoulders in both shifts.

NSW had higher stress level than DSW. Wrist/hands and shoulders were highly affected areas of discomfort and pain among the sample. There was higher nicotine dependence in NSW than in DSW. DSW had high risk of alcohol dependence as compared to NSW and we have identified DSW had good sleep quality than NSW.