Prevalence of Overweight and Eating Disorder Risk of Hospital Night Staff at Rouen University Hospital

Introduction: Night shift work can disturb the biological rhythm of employees and can lead to sleep digestive and nutritional disorders as well as onset of overweight. We studied the prevalence of nutritional disorders among the night shift staff of a university hospital. Methods: Staff were proposed an anonymous questionnaire including items on: socio-demographics, physical activity, nutrition (BMI, snacking, hyperphagia, weight change with duration of night shift and screening risk of eating disorder (ED) with F-SCOFF questionnaire); sleepiness (EPWORTH questionnaire); and smoking status. Results: Four hundred and nineteen (57.4%) night shift workers answered the questionnaire. More 90% were women and nearly half of them were nurses (47%). One hundred and forty-six (36.6%) had weight excess and 15.8% (n=66) were suspected to have an ED. One out of five workers (16.9%, n=70) had an EPWORTH score in with risk of hypersomnia. Multivariable logistic regression analysis found factors significantly associated with suspected ED: high EPWORTH score (aOR=3.94, 95% CI [1.91, 8.13]), weight gain in night staff (aOR=3.40, 95% CI [1.60, 7.21]), overweight (aOR=2.04, 95% CI [1.06-3.94]), dieting (aOR=3.38, 95% CI [1.74, 6.55]), and hyperphagia (aOR=3.74, 95% CI [1.55, 9.00]). At least one third of workers were interested in dietary counseling (n=38.2%). Conclusion: Overweight and ED are frequent in night shift workers, which underlines the need for specialized intervention.