The association of night shift work with the risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study of 245,570 UK Biobank participants

• Published in: Journal of neurology Vol. 270; no. 7; pp. 3499 - 3510
• Main Authors: Ling, Yitong, Yuan, Shiqi, Huang, Xiaxuan, Tan, Shanyuan, Huang, Tao, Xu, Anding, Lyu, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease; Biobanks; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Longitudinal studies; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurology; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; Nighttime; Original Communication; Shift work; Workers; United Kingdom > UK; Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Genetic susceptibility; Night shift work; All-cause dementia
• ISSN: 0340-5354; 1432-1459; 1432-1459
• DOI: 10.1007/s00415-023-11672-8

Background The purpose of this research was to investigate a possible link between night shift work and the development of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as determine the contribution of night shift work, genetic susceptibility to AD. Methods This study was conducted using the UK Biobank database. 245,570 participants with a mean follow-up length of 13.1 years were included. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to investigate the link between night shift work and the development of all-cause dementia or AD. Results We counted a total of 1248 participants with all-cause dementia. In the final multivariable adjusted model, the risk of dementia was highest in always night shift workers (HR 1.465, 95% CI 1.058–2.028, P = 0.022), followed by irregular shift workers (HR 1.197, 95% CI 1.026–1.396, P = 0.023). AD events were recorded in 474 participants during the follow-up period. After final multivariate adjustment of model, always night shift workers remained at the highest risk (HR 2.031, 95% CI 1.269–3.250, P = 0.003). Moreover, always night shift workers were associated with a higher risk of AD in both low, intermediate and high AD-GRS groups. Conclusions Always night shift work had a higher risk of developing all-cause dementia and AD. Irregular shift workers had a higher risk of developing all-cause dementia than no shift workers. Always night shift work had a higher AD risk, regardless of whether they had a high, intermediate or low AD-GRS.