The association between proportion of night shifts and musculoskeletal pain and headaches in nurses: a cross-sectional study

Shift work is associated with musculoskeletal pain and headaches, but little is known about how the intensity of shift work exposure is related to musculoskeletal pain and headaches. This study aimed to investigate whether a higher proportion of night shifts is associated with a higher occurrence of musculoskeletal pain and headaches. Furthermore, to investigate whether sleep duration can mediate this potential association.

The study included 684 nurses in rotating shift work who responded to a daily questionnaire about working hours, sleep, and pain for 28 consecutive days. The data were treated cross-sectionally.

A negative binomial regression analysis adjusted for age and BMI revealed that working a higher proportion of night shifts is not associated with a higher occurrence of musculoskeletal pain and headaches. On the contrary, those working ≥ 50% night shifts had a significantly lower occurrence of pain in the lower extremities than those who worked < 25% night shifts (IRR 0.69 95% CI 0.51, 0.94). There was no indication of a mediation effect with total sleep time (TST).

The results of this study indicate that working a higher proportion of night shifts is not associated with a higher occurrence of musculoskeletal pain and headaches.