Korean J Fam Pract. 2016; 6(2): 63-69  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2016.6.2.63
The Relationship between Shift Work and Depressive Symptom
Ji-Woong Park, Yohan Sun, Myoung-Sook Noh*
Department of Family Medicine, Busan Adventist Hospital, Busan, Korea
Myoung-Sook Noh
Tel: +82-51-600-7700, Fax: +82-51-600-7557
E-mail: yakko71@hanmail.net
Received: January 22, 2016; Accepted: February 26, 2016; Published online: April 20, 2016.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: The number of shift workers has progressively increased with increasing social needs. Shift work (especially night shift) is known to negatively affect workers’ health and well-being. We aimed to compare shift and non-shift workers in terms of depressive symptoms and related factors.
Methods: Data were obtained from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2013. Of the 994 participants, 357 were women (all standard workers aged ≥19 years). Based on the information provided by a self-administered questionnaire, subjects were categorized according to work schedule (shift/non-shift). Differences in general characteristics (sociodemographic/health/work factors) between shift and non-shift workers were assessed using the t-test, chi-square test, linear-by-linear association, and Fisher exact test. To evaluate the factors that affect depression, a logistic regression analysis was performed for the general characteristic parameters.
Results: Shift workers (9.5%) had higher incidence of depressive symptoms over 2 weeks than the non-shift workers (4.6%; P=0.024). The factors that affected depression were sex (female: odds ratio [OR], 2.94; P=0.001), stress perception (yes: OR, 3.43; P<0.001), suicidal ideation (yes: OR, 15.25; P<0.001), sleep duration (<7 hours/day: OR, 2.16; P=0.021), and occupation class (manual: OR, 2.20; P=0.048) in all subjects.
Conclusion: Shift work had a negative effect on workers in terms of depressive symptoms. Shift workers faced harsher conditions than the non-shift workers. Female-sex, stress, suicide ideation, lack of sleep, and manual work were associated with higher depressive symptoms among the workers. Therefore, the working environment should be improved to prevent these depression triggers.
Keywords: Depressive Symptom ; Shift Work ; Health Surveys ; Mental Health ; Circadian Rhythm
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