Shift workers ‘more likely to get Covid’

WORKING shifts makes you three times more likely to catch Covid as doing regular hours, say scientists.

The work pattern poses as “significant” a virus risk as ethnicity and living in a poor area.

Researchers are now calling for shift workers to be considered in public health initiatives.

Cycle

Study author Dr John Blaikley, of the University of Manchester, said: “This shows quite a strong association between shift working and being hospitalised for Covid-19, even after controlling for existing risk factors.”

Globally, shift work is becoming increasingly common with up to 40 per cent doing so.

It has already been associated with respiratory issues, diabetes and cancer due to sleep deprivation, poor diet and disruption of the body’s natural 24-hour circadian cycle. Teams from the universities of Manchester, Oxford and the West Indies studied 280,000 people – aged 40 to 69 – working 9am to 5pm hours, and those on long-term night shifts and rotating stints.

They found those doing irregular night shifts were three times more likely to test positive for the virus.

And that permanent shifts made a person 2.5 times more vulnerable.

The data also revealed shift workers tended to be younger, male, with a higher body mass index, smoked more, had a lower alcohol intake, non-white ethnicity and higher deprivation.

Co-author Dr Hannah Durrington, said: “We believe it should be possible to substantially mitigate these risks through good handwashing, use of face protection, appropriate spacing and vaccination.”