Association Between Shift Working and Brain Morphometric Changes in Workers: A Voxel-wise Comparison.

OBJECTIVE

There is abundant evidence from observational studies linking various health problems to shift work, but there is a lack of brain-based neurological evidence. Therefore, we examined morphometric changes on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) between shift and non-shift workers.

METHODS

A total 111 healthy workers participated in this study and underwent brain MRI, with the analysis incorporating merged workers' health surveillance data from regional hospital workers. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to investigate regional changes in the gray matter volume. To investigate the association of structural changes between shift workers and non-shift workers, a general linear model and threshold-free cluster enhancement were used with covariates, including total intracranial volume, age, and sex.

RESULTS

After family-wise error correction, non-shift workers exhibited a significantly larger cerebellar region ( < 0.05) than shift workers. Conversely, the inferior parietal gyrus was found to be significantly larger in shift workers than in non-shift workers with family-wise error correction.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed increased clusters in the brains of both shift and non-shift workers, suggesting that the acquired occupational environment, including the shift work schedule, could influence brain neuroplasticity, which is an important consideration for occupational health.