Lavoro notturno e salute: studio condotto su una popolazione di lavoratori dell’area metropolitana fiorentina

Today we live in a 24-hours society where night-work affects almost all areas of employment. Night-work, leading to subversion of physiological circadian rhythms and habits, may produce some impacts on the individual overall well-being. This causes a lowering of work performance, an increase in the risk of accidental events and, more generally, a perception of less satisfactory living conditions (shift-worker syndrome). In our experience we have interviewed, through a questionnaire, 258 workers (night-workers and not) in the metropolitan area of Florence, divided into 4 groups based on the number of night-shifts per year. We found, in line with the Literature, that night-workers receive a less satisfactory quality of sleep, often associated with daytime sleepiness. The prevalence of disorders of various organs and systems is higher in these subjects, as well as the consumption of psychoactive substances (caffeine, nicotine). Regarding the road accidents, a similar trend is not confirmed in our series; in this context we have, nevertheless, to take account of some potential bias. Our questionnaire, based on the standard of the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine (AIMS), may be integrated and optimized for future studies.