Summary: The Importance Of Shift Work

It is familiar that a number of physiological phenomena follow a circadian rhythm, and it is also known that long-term disturbance of the circadian rhythm have clinical consequences. Apparently, the circadian rhythm of shift workers possibly will happen to be disturbed. As a result, increased incidence of disorders such as CHD, metabolic syndrome, mental and behavioral disorders or sleep disturbances has become common among shift workers. (2)
Physiological, psychological and social processes like metabolic rate, short term memory and family interaction respectively, have demonstrated rhythmic increases and decreases in daily activity. These cycle about once a day and the pattern is called circadian rhythm. When there is an alteration in the

There is an outsized person to person variation in forbearance to shift work, but the reason for variation among individual tolerance is not explained clearly. None of the shift systems are found to be beneficial over the other, but the only stated remedy is to allow the individual to choose his or her own working hours in a shift work that would improve their ability to accustom to shift work. Cardiovascular risk occurs more commonly among shift workers because of the clash between the frequently changing work hours and output of the biological clock.

The infections and nutritional deficiencies are thinning down as leading causes of death and disability and hence cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, neuro- psychiatric ailments, and other long term diseases are becoming major contributors to the burden of disease. This alteration in the prototype of diseases from communicable to non-communicable is taking place at a faster rate in developing countries than in developed nations. India, at present is facing double burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Among all the NCDs, cardiovascular diseases are the most extensive and they have become the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries across the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates (2005), 17.5 million people died of CVDs worldwide . This is 30% of total deaths globally. According to National Health Profile 2007, the anticipated number of cases of coronary heart disease in India in 2005 was approximately 36 million. It is also likely that the CVD burden of India would double in the next two decades, making it the only distinct largest cause of death and the second largest cause of disability by the year 2020. The majority of this increase will occur on account of coronary heart disease. Despite this high burden, there is poor knowledge amongst Indians, along with lower detection and prevention. This can be