Correlation between shift work and psychological problems among hospitals personnel of Ardabil University of Medical science

Background

Working in the form of shift works especially with irregular circulation derange the circadian rhythms of human body, that this derangement has a close relation with' aggravation of depression's sign and other psychological problems. So shift work can be propounded as a risk factor of psychological problems creation. This study has been executed to determine relation between shift work and psychological problems among hospital's personnel of Ardabil University of Medical science.

Materials and methods

This study is a retrospective case-control one and has been executed on 388 persons of personnel of hospitals of Ardabil University of Medical Science (223 as case group and 65 as control group), that has been selected randomly. Requisite information was collected with three questionnaires. Including General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), personal questionnaire and standardized sleep state evaluation questionnaire and were analyzed by SPSS statistical software. Chi-square and analysis of variance tests were used to test investigation's hypothesis.

Results

In evaluation of general relation between shift work and prevalence of psychological problems no meaningful relation was found, but with renewed encoding and psychological problems determining, meaningful relation were found between these problems such as somatoform signs (p<0.005) anxiety (p<0.019) social action disorder (p<0.001) and depression (p<0.019) and shift work. At the same time result of comparison of sleep state in the case and control group showed that in all items s1sep1 taking nap throughout day, there is meaningful difference between two case and control group and this difference show that more sleep problems is found in case group as compared with control group. Also, meaningful relations were seen between record of service and prevalence of mentioned problems (p<0.001). According to obtained results in this survey and meaningful relation between prevalence of psychological problems and shift work, in hospitals that has been studied.

Conclusions

It is advised to reform irregular circulation of shift Work in hospitals and with due attention to work conditions of any hospital, a sought after shift work system be executed.