Key Points
Analysing data on more than 7,000 people in the US collected over 30 years, researchers observed disrupted sleep patterns in people whose careers involved more volatile work schedules...
These people were more likely to report depressive symptoms at the age of 50, compared to individuals who worked during the traditional daytime hours over their entire career, according to Wen-Jui Han from New York University, US, and the author of the study published in the journal PLoS One...
The author explained that volatile work schedules are associated with poor sleep, physical fatigue, and emotional exhaustion, that can make people vulnerable to unhealthy lives...
For example, socially vulnerable Black Americans were more likely to have volatile work schedules associated with poorer health, highlighting that some groups may disproportionately shoulder the adverse consequences of such employment patterns, according to Han...
The findings also suggested that the effects of one's work schedules, both positive and negative, can accumulate over one's lifetime, thereby highlighting how employment patterns can contribute to health inequities, the author pointed out..
