In a research article published in PLoS Medicine earlier this month, An Pan and colleagues examined data from two cohorts of the US Nurses’ Health Study and found that extended periods of rotating night shift work were associated with a modestly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, partly mediated through an association with increased body weight. The PLoS Medicine Editors discuss the link between shift work, diet, and type 2 diabetes in their December editorial, arguing that unhealthy eating should be considered a new form of occupational hazard. The Editors comment: “As the world of work becomes increasingly 24 hour, shift work will become more common. And if the data from this and other studies are to be taken at face value, shift work has the potential to accelerate the progression of the global epidemic of obesity and diabetes…Increasingly, public health advocates feel that concrete action is needed: governments need to legislate to improve the habits of consumers and take specific steps to ensure that it is easier and cheaper to eat healthily than not.”
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Editorial
Poor Diet in Shift Workers: A New Occupational Health Hazard?
PLOS Medicine: published December 27, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001152
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