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Assessment of the impact of shift work on thyroid disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Psychiatrics • Review
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Abstract

Purpose

Shift work including night work is a common work pattern worldwide and researchers have no consensus on the impact of shift work on thyroid disorders. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to summarize the evidence from published studies to ascertain the impact of shift work on thyroid disorders.

Methods

Studies on the link between shift work and thyroid disorders published in Pubmed, Embase, Medline, and Cochrane databases by September 2021 were searched. Newcastle–Ottawa scale was used to assess the quality of included studies. The Mantel–Haenszel statistical method and the inverse-variance statistical method were used to evaluate the pooled results of dichotomous and continuous variables, respectively. Study heterogeneity analysis was performed using I2 statistics. Sensitivity analysis was conducted by omitting one study each time and re-calculating the pooled results of the remaining studies.

Results

Seven eligible studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The results showed that shift work would lead to an increase in TSH (SMD: 0.30; 95%CI: 0.05–0.55; P = 0.02; I2 = 64%) and FT4 (SMD: 0.21; 95%CI: 0.02–0.40; P = 0.03; I2 = 0%). However, shift work had no clear effect on the risk of positive thyroid autoantibodies (OR: 1.26; 95%CI: 0.62–2.55; P = 0.52; I2 = 63%).

Conclusion

Shift work may be associated with abnormal TSH and FT4 levels. Thyroid health is affected in shift workers and it is advisable to remind patients to get good sleep the night before testing thyroid function.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all authors for their careful work and good cooperation.

Funding

The study was funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81670763 and 81471050).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jingyi Luo, Shan Ding, Weihao Wang, Jingwen Fan, Xiaoye Duan, Qi Pan & Lixin Guo

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  1. Jingyi Luo
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  2. Shan Ding
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  3. Weihao Wang
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Contributions

Lixin Guo, Qi Pan, and Jingyi Luo conceived and designed the research. Jingyi Luo, Xiaoye Duan, Jingwen Fan, and Weihao Wang searched articles and extracted data. Jingyi Luo and Shan Ding were responsible for data analyses and writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qi Pan or Lixin Guo.

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Luo, J., Ding, S., Wang, W. et al. Assessment of the impact of shift work on thyroid disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Breath 27, 703–708 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-022-02652-9

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