Investigating the relationship between shift work schedule and blood and metabolic parameters: a 10-years retrospective cohort study.

Shift work has become increasingly common in modern society. Shift work has been associated with a range of negative health outcomes. Therefore, this 10-years retrospective cohort study, aimed to investigate the relationship between shift work and blood and metabolic parameters. This retrospective cohort study was conducted in a metal parts manufacturing industry in 2023. In this study, 204 shift workers and 204 day workers were examined. All the studied blood and metabolic parameters were collected by reviewing the medical records of all participants during a 10-years period (2013-2022). Moreover, the amounts of physical, chemical, and ergonomics harmful agents in the work environment were investigated. All the collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. The values of Body Mass Index (BMI), Red Blood Cell Count (RBC), Platelets Count (PLT), Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Level (TSH), Fasting Blood Sugar Level (FBS), Creatinine, Triglyceride (TG), Liver Enzymes level (SGOT and SGPT), and Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) were higher among the shift work employees, and a significant difference was observed between the values of these parameters between the two groups. The results of logistic regression showed that the highest effect of shift work was observed on the parameters of FBS, TG, SGPT, TSH, Physical activity, BMI, Sleep duration, PLT, and Sleep quality with beta coefficient values of 0.49, 0.33, 0.29, 0.29, 0.20, 0.18, 0.14, 0.13 and, 0.11, respectively (p-value < 0.01). The present study contributes to a growing body of evidence that blood and metabolic factors are likely to be influenced by shift work. These findings have important implications for policy makers, highlighting the need for interventions to mitigate the negative health effects of shift work on workers.

Psychological and Psychosocial Impact and Related Factors during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Iranian Oil Refineries Personnel: A longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 outbreak is currently a critical challenge, and proper perception of the mental health situation of individuals in the working environments has become a crucial issue. This study aimed to investigate the psychological and psychosocial impact during the COVID-19 pandemic among Iranian oil refineries personnel. METHODS: This longitudinal study was conducted in two phases from November 2019 to July 2020 among the 850 employees of three refineries in Iran. To study the mental workload, job burnout, lifestyle, occupational stress, general health, and memory quotient of personnel, the NASA-TLX questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire, Walker's health-promoting lifestyle questionnaire, health and safety executive (HSE) job stress questionnaire, general health questionnaire, and Wechsler memory scale were used, respectively. Data were analyzed using paired sample t test, independent sample t test, and one-way ANOVA in SPSS version 25. RESULTS: The study results revealed that the mean age of studied personnel was 34.62±13.48 years. There was a meaningful correlation between the values of mental workload, job burnout, occupational stress, general health, healthy lifestyle, and memory quotient of personnel before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (P value<0.05). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect the psychological and psychosocial parameters of employees in working environments. Therefore, implementing psychological interventions is absolutely necessary to promote personnel's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.