Many studies have been conducted regarding the association between night work and diabetes, but the association between impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and night work is still unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate this association using the Special Health Examination (SHEW) for Korean night workers. Laboratory, questionnaire, and physical examination data were collected for 80,077 manual workers between 2014 and 2016 from Korea Medical Institute, and associations of the data with IFG were evaluated using a multivariate logistic regression model. The odds ratios for IFG among those who worked night shifts for 2~5 years, 5~12 years, and 12 years or over (ref: <2 years) after adjusting for abdominal obesity were 1.14 (0.90-1.45), 1.41 (1.10-1.81), and 1.75 (1.41-2.19), respectively. A dose-response relationship was identified between the duration of night work and the prevalence of IFG (p for trend <0.05). A dose relationship remained significant when a subgroup of non-obese participants was analyzed. We identified an association and a dose-response relationship between the number of years of night work and IFG. To prevent the development of diabetes in night workers, we suggest that they should be pre-emptively screened and treated from the stage of IFG.
Keywords: blood glucose; prediabetic state; shift work schedule; worker’s health examination.