ORIGINAL PAPER
Night-shift work and risk of compromised visual acuity among the workers
in an electronics manufacturing company
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1
Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan
(School of Medicine)
2
En Chu Kong Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
(Department of Occupational Medicine)
3
Tao Yuan General Hospital, Tao Yuan City, Taiwan
(Department of Occupational Medicine)
Online publication date: 2017-09-20
Corresponding author
Yu-Cheng Lin
En Chu Kong Hospital, Department of Occupational Medicine, Fuxing Road 399, 237 New Taipei City, Taiwan
Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2018;31(1):71-9
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ABSTRACT
Objectives: To evaluate the association between night-shift work exposure and visual health, this cross-sectional study
utilized visual acuity, a surrogate measure for visual function, as a parameter, and performed an analysis comparing visual
acuity between daytime and nighttime employees in an electronics manufacturing company. Material and Methods: Data of personal histories, occupational records, physical examinations and blood tests was obtained from the electronic
health records of workers. The total of 8280 workers including 3098 women and 5182 men, wearing their own daily used
eyeglasses, were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the sample population was 34.7 years old (standard deviation
= 5.4 years). All workers were divided into 3 work categories – consistent daytime worker (CDW), day-shift worker
(DSW) and night-shift worker (NSW). The check-up results of glasses-corrected visual acuity (c-VA) were utilized to
classify individuals as good (≥ 1.2, both eyes) and inadequate (< 0.8, the better eye) c-VA. Results: Consistent daytime
workers had the highest rate of good c-VA (42.5% vs. 25.1% DSW and 21.1% NSW, p = 0.047). Night-shift workers had
the highest rate of inadequate c-VA (CDW, DSW and NSW: 2.6%, 6.2%, and 7.6%, p = 0.03) among all employees. After
controlling for covariates, NSW were found at an increased risk for inadequate c-VA (adjusted odds ratio (ORa) = 2.7,
95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0–3.6, vs. CDW), and less likely to have good c-VA (ORa = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.4–0.5, vs. CDW). Conclusions: Night-shift work is moderately associated with compromised visual acuity of employees in this electronics
manufacturing company. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2018;31(1):71–79