'Lansley must listen to nurses on the front line' Shift workers risk early retirement
In a 15-year study of 8,000 people, 253 women had to take early retirement because of poor health, compared with 173 men.
The likelihood of women retiring early because of illness increased by 34% if they had been shift workers, the authors said in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. There was no such increased risk for male shift workers.
Carol Bannister, RCN adviser in the professional nursing department, said: ‘These findings are of obvious concern – not least because most nurses are women and a lot do shift work.
She added: ‘Everybody who works shifts should have regular health assessments.’
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