The Effect of Shift Work on the Diurnal Rhythm of Blood Pressure in Nurses / 산업간호학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was performed to investigate the effect of shift work on diurnal blood pressure (BP) pattern in nurses. Method: We studied 20 healthy nurses engaged in 3 shift work. 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring was performed to each nurse two times during the day and night shift. Five nurses were excluded because of inadequate BP measurement. RESULTS: All subjects were female. The mean age was 27.4 years (range 23?33 years) and mean body mass index was 19.7 Kg/m2 (range 18.0-21.2 Kg/m2). The changes of systolic BP (17.8+/-9.1 vs. 13.2+/- 4.7%, p=0.031), diastolic BP (22.3+/-8.7 vs. 17.3+/-9.0%, p=0.061), and heart rate (25.2+/- 5.2 vs. 12.5+/-8.7%, p=0.001) during the sleeping period were decreased after a night shift compared with day shift. The non-dipper group significantly increased from 20% to 40% after a night shift (p=0.018). CONCLUSION: Working night shift is significantly associated with non-dipper status in nurses.