assessing the association between rotating shift work and metabolic syndrome among the staff of pars special economic energy zone of iran

Background: to examine the association between metabolic syndrome, and rotating shift work, this study examined the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, and its components among rotating shift workers and day workers in pars special economic energy (bandar-e-asalouyeh), southwest iran.material and methods: we conducted a cross-sectional study using the data of 1249 workers in the petrochemical industry. statistical significance was assessed using chi-square and independent t-tests. a multivariate and univariate analysis was used to assess the metabolic syndrome impact factors.results: shift workers were younger and had less education than day workers. the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 11.6% among study participants, 13.4% among day workers, and 8.9% among shift workers. in the multivariate analysis, shift workers had an odds ratio of 0.9 for developing metabolic syndrome (95% ci= 0.58–1.37, p=0.619). day workers were likelier to have low high density lipoprotein than shift workers (or: 0.57, ci: 0.44-0.74, p=0.000). physical activity at shift time (or =0.84, ci =0.72-0.98, p=0.031), and increasing age (or 1.05; 95% ci; 1.03-1.07; p<0.000) show an association with metabolic syndrome.conclusion: in the iranian workers, metabolic syndrome was less prevalent than general population. a statistical difference in the metabolic syndrome prevalence was not found between shift workers and daytime workers. a rotating shift with night and day work schedules is probably not associated with metabolic syndrome. the adverse effects of working night shifts can be alleviated by physical activity.