Long-term longitudinal study on the relationship between alternating shift work and the onset of diabetes mellitus in male Japanese workers

Objective: This study investigated the effect of alternating shift work (ASW) oil the onset of diabetes mellitus in Japanese workers compared with onset in day-shift work (DSW). Methods: A longitudinal study was carried out on a DSW group, (n = 3203) and ASW group (n = 2426) of a steel company who received their annual health checkups over a 10-year period between 1991 and 2001. The association between job schedule type and onset of diabetes mellitus (glycated hemoglobin Alc >= 6.0% or medication) was investigated by multivariate pooled logistic regression allalyses. Results: The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the development of diabetes mellitus in the ASW group compared with the DSW group, was 1.35 (1.05-1.75). Conclusions: Our study revealed that the ASW is an independent risk factor for the onset of diabetes mellitus.