Research

Hormonal

Exposure to shift work, particularly rotating shifts, is associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of developing diabetes mellitus compared to normal daytime work schedules.

If you work shifts, especially rotating ones, your risk for type 2 diabetes is higher than day workers. This is likely due to disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms affecting how your body handles sugar. Prioritize sleep quality, maintain a healthy weight, and discuss your shift schedule with your doctor to monitor blood sugar levels proactively.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
A pooled adjusted OR for the association between ever exposure to shift work and DM risk was 1.09 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.12; p=0.014; I2=40.9%).
Yong Gan et al. · Occupational and Environmental Medicine · 2014

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 12 observational studies with large sample size (226,652 participants), though heterogeneity was moderate.

Source

Shift work and diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis of observational studies

Yong Gan et al. · Occupational and Environmental Medicine · 2014

DOI 10.1136/oemed-2014-102150

Meta-analysis · 12 studiesCited 510×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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