Impact of shift work on general health status of medical residents

Background: medical residents are a population who are at great risk to develop sleep disruption due to demanding clinical and academic duties. knowing how much change in sleep wake pattern is associated with subsequent psychological distress could be useful to establish a systematic mental health program for medical residents. method: a cross sectional study was conducted to explore the association between shift works and general health status of 128 medical residents. a self report sleep-wake questionnaire and general health questionnaire (ghq) were used to test the pattern of sleep-wake and general health status respectively. result: there was a significant correlation between sleep disruption and general health status of study sample (p=0.001).number of night shift was a predictor for general health among medical residents. conclusion: sleep disruption due to shift work could be a predictor for mental morbidity. reduce in night time shift among medical residents might prevent both physical and mental morbidity among them. © 2012,shiraz e medical journal. all rights reserved.