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Case fatality of myocardial infarction among shift workers

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Abstract

Purpose

Shift work has been associated with an excess risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and more specifically myocardial infarction (MI). The majority of the studies that found a positive association between shift work and CVD have been based on incidence data. The results from studies on cardiovascular-related mortality among shift workers have shown little or no elevated mortality associated with shift work. None of the previous studies have analysed short-term mortality (case fatality) after MI. Therefore, we investigated whether shift work is associated with increased case fatality after MI compared with day workers.

Methods

Data on incident cases with first MI were obtained from case–control study conducted in two geographical sites in Sweden (Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program and Västernorrland Heart Epidemiology Program), including 1,542 cases (1,147 men and 395 women) of MI with complete working time information and 65 years or younger. Case fatality was defined as death within 28 days of onset of MI. Risk estimates were calculated using logistic regression.

Results

The crude odds ratios for case fatality among male shift workers were 1.63 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.12, 2.38] and 0.56 (95 % CI 0.26, 1.18) for female shift workers compared with day workers. Adjustments for established cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes type II and socio-economic status did not alter the results.

Conclusion

Shift work was associated with increased risk of case fatality among male shift workers after the first MI.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, 851 70, Sundsvall, Sweden

    Jonas Hermansson, Katja Gillander Gådin & Anders Knutsson

  2. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Occupational Medicine, University of Umeå, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Berndt Karlsson & Christina Reuterwall

  3. Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Preventive Medicine, Uppsala University, Box 564, 751 22, Uppsala, Sweden

    Johan Hallqvist

Authors
  1. Jonas Hermansson
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  2. Katja Gillander Gådin
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  3. Berndt Karlsson
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  4. Christina Reuterwall
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  5. Johan Hallqvist
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  6. Anders Knutsson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonas Hermansson.

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Hermansson, J., Gillander Gådin, K., Karlsson, B. et al. Case fatality of myocardial infarction among shift workers. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 88, 599–605 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-0984-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-0984-z

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