Dietary Patterns of Nurses on Rotational Shifts Are Marked by Redistribution of Energy into the Nightshift
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Department of Biochemical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
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Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
3
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2020, 12(4), 1053; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041053
Received: 17 February 2020
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Revised: 21 March 2020
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Accepted: 7 April 2020
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Published: 10 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)
Nightshift work is associated with adverse health outcomes, which may be related to eating during the biological night, when circadian rhythms and food intake are misaligned. Nurses often undertake nightshift work, and we aimed to investigate patterns of energy distribution and dietary intake across 14 days in 20 UK National Health Service (NHS) nurses working rotational shifts. We hypothesised that the proportion of daily energy consumed during the nightshift would increase over consecutive nights. Primary and secondary outcome measures included intakes of energy and macronutrients. Our results show that nurses consumed the same total daily energy on nightshifts and non-nightshifts, but redistributed energy to the nightshift period in increasing proportions with a significant difference between Night 1 and 2 in the proportion of total daily energy consumed (26.0 ± 15.7% vs. 33.5 ± 20.2%, mean ± SD; p < 0.01). This finding indicates that, rather than increasing total energy intake, nurses redistribute energy consumed during nightshifts as a behavioural response to consecutive nightshifts. This finding informs our understanding of how the intake of energy during the biological night can influence adverse health outcomes of nightshift work.
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Keywords:
shift work; circadian rhythms; diet; nutrition; circadian misalignment
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MDPI and ACS Style
Flanagan, A.; Lowson, E.; Arber, S.; Griffin, B.A.; Skene, D.J. Dietary Patterns of Nurses on Rotational Shifts Are Marked by Redistribution of Energy into the Nightshift. Nutrients 2020, 12, 1053. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041053
AMA Style
Flanagan A, Lowson E, Arber S, Griffin BA, Skene DJ. Dietary Patterns of Nurses on Rotational Shifts Are Marked by Redistribution of Energy into the Nightshift. Nutrients. 2020; 12(4):1053. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041053
Chicago/Turabian StyleFlanagan, Alan, Elizabeth Lowson, Sara Arber, Bruce A. Griffin, and Debra J. Skene. 2020. "Dietary Patterns of Nurses on Rotational Shifts Are Marked by Redistribution of Energy into the Nightshift" Nutrients 12, no. 4: 1053. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041053
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