Research project Working hours, health and security - how to organize a sustainable shift schedule?

Shift work is an important work environment factor that contributes to work-related ill health and mortality. To reduce work-related ill-health and mortality, it is important to design shift schedules that meet our need for recovery, do not interfere more than necessary in social life, and reduce circadian rhythm disturbances.

Night shift on construction site. Photo: kreativ web marketing from Pixabay.

There is a great need to compile the state of knowledge for how the shift schedule should be planned so that a health-promoting working life can be accomplished.

The literature review will examine the relationship between different shift schedule components, such as night work, early morning work, short daily rest and long work shifts, for health-related outcome variables. The schedule components will be defined and quantified with respect to intensity (number of shifts/ shift cycle), number of consecutive shifts with a specific component, rotation pattern and combinations of different shift schedule components. The overview, which is built on a systematic literature search, will largely be based on recently published epidemiological studies that have used objective working time data and thus have more reliable exposure data for various shift schedule components.