Research

Mixed

Cumulative exposure to rotating night shift work is positively associated with increased BMI, waist circumference, and abdominal obesity in female nurses and midwives.

If you work rotating night shifts, your cumulative exposure matters. More night shifts and longer hours are linked to higher BMI and waist circumference. While you may not be able to change your schedule, being aware that this occupational factor contributes to weight gain can motivate you to prioritize sleep quality and monitor your diet, particularly around the clock cycle.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Cumulative night shift work showed significant associations with BMI, WC, HC and WHtR, with BMI increasing by 0.477 kg/m2 per 1000 night duties and by 0.432 kg/m2 per 10000 night shift hours... Both current and cumulative night work was associated with obesity (BMI≥30kg/m2), with OR=3.9 (95%CI:1.5-9.9), in women reporting eight or more night shifts per month.
Beata Pepłońska et al. · PLoS ONE · 2015

Why this rating

Cross-sectional design limits causal inference, but the sample size is large and adjustments for confounders are robust.

Source

Association of Rotating Night Shift Work with BMI and Abdominal Obesity among Nurses and Midwives

Beata Pepłońska et al. · PLoS ONE · 2015

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0133761

cross_sectional · n=724Cited 189×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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