Prevalência de excesso de peso entre trabalhadores em esquema de trabalho em turnos fixos

Abstract

Context: Obesity is a disease of epidemic proportions worldwide. This condition leads to reduced quality of life and life expectancy, functional disability, and mortality. With multifactorial etiology, it is the result of genetic interactions, lifestyle, and environmental factors, such as labor. In a society that operates 24 hours, there is a constant increase in night-shift workers. The metabolic changes caused by night work lead to problems such as an increase in excess body weight. Objectives: To verify the occurrence of factors associated with overweight among employees who work in shifts in a chemical company. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out at a chemical company in the city of São Paulo, in 2013. Twenty-nine workers from the production department (76.3% of the total) agreed to participate in the study and were divided into three groups, according to their work schedules. An interview was conducted for the completion of questionnaires and physical evaluation. A case was categorized as overweight when the body mass index (BMI) was ≥25 kg/m2. Statistical analyzes were performed between the outcome and the variables using Fisher's exact test. Results: The group was composed of all male workers, with mean age of 40.2 years (SD±6.53) and average of 10 years (SD±8) working in the company. Of the total participants, 93% did not smoke, 62% did not drink alcohol, 41% were sedentary, and 69% worked the daytime shift. Overweight was present in 82.8% of the workers. There was no statistical association of overweight with shifts or other covariates. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is a high prevalence of overweight in the studied group. The work shift and other covariables did not show statistical association with overweight among the workers in this research. However, it indicates that this company need to create programs of integral attention to the workers' health aimed at overweight reduction.