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Women
who often work at night may face higher odds of developing
type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. Their results suggest
that women have a modestly increased risk of type 2 diabetes
mellitus after extended period of shift work and this
association appears to be largely mediated through BMI.
Prior studies have suggested that working nights disrupts
circadian (day/night) rhythms and such work has long been
associated with obesity, the cluster of cardiovascular risk
factors known as the "metabolic syndrome," and dysregulation
of blood sugar. In the new study, researchers looked at data
on more than 69,000 U.S. women tracked from 1988 to 2008 as
part of the Nurses Health Study. Almost 6,200 women
developed type 2 diabetes over the course of the study.
Beginning at their entry into the study, women were asked
how long they had worked rotating night shifts (including at
least three nights of work per month). The researchers found
that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes rose with
increasing duration of shift work. After adjusting for
obesity, women who'd worked night shifts regularly for three
to nine years faced a 6 percent rise in risk, while women
who had done so for 10 to 19 years saw their risk rise by 9
percent and those who had worked such shifts for 20 years or
more faced a 20 percent increase in risk. Weight gain
accounted for some, but not all, of the night shift-linked
rise in diabetes risk, the team noted.
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