Rotating shift work, including night shifts, is reported by one-fifth of workers in the EU27 survey and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Irregular meal timing and poor dietary habits related to shift work contribute to metabolic disorders and may further elevate cardiovascular risk. In this pilot study, 14 rotating shift workers including night shifts (NSWs) and 14 regular daytime workers (DWs) underwent assessments of blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist (W) and hip (H) circumference, triglycerides, HDL, and LDL cholesterol. All participants also completed questionnaires evaluating nutrient quality, meal timing over a week, and lifestyle factors. In NSWs, a disrupted eating schedule was observed during both workdays and rest days, with frequent lunch skipping in favour of high-fat snacks. Weekly intake of junk food was higher (p < 0.01) and fresh vegetable consumption lower (p < 0.05) in NSWs compared to DWs. BMI, W/H ratio, and triglyceride levels were slightly higher in NSWs. Active smoking was more common among NSWs (50%) than DWs (21%, p < 0.01). Excess body weight, dyslipidemia, and higher smoking prevalence—combined with a long-standing pattern of unhealthy eating may, along with circadian misalignment, contribute to the elevated cardiometabolic risk observed in otherwise healthy NSWs. Implementing workplace policies to improve nutrient quality and meal timing may help reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disorders in this population.

Background: Sleep deprivation is a frequent outcome of nightshift work, a probable human carcinogen. However, social, cultural, and technological changes have contributed to spread sleep deprivation also among the general population. We reviewed the literature on sleep disorders in adults associated with lifestyle, environmental, and workplace conditions unrelated to shift work aiming to: 1. identify sleep depriving factors during the pre-placement medical examination of night shift workers; and 2. recognize potential sources of confounding and bias in epidemiological studies of shift workers. Methods: We searched public repositories of publications in English or with an informative English abstract up to January 2024. We used standard tools to assess the quality of the selected studies. Results: Overall, we identified 134 papers. Our review confirms that poor sleep quality and sleep deprivation are highly prevalent and result from multiple non-occupational factors as well as occupational factors other than shift work. Physical activity, coffee and alcohol intake, eating habits, lifestyle, and work-related stress were most frequently investigated (67/134 publications). There is sufficient evidence that aging, female sex, family responsibilities, caffeine intake, smoking, poor mental and physical health, and work-related stress can impair sleep quality and reduce sleep duration. Contradictory findings and the possibility of reverse causation due to the predominance of cross-sectional studies prevent drawing conclusions regarding other potential risk factors. Conclusions: Non-occupational causes of sleep disorders shall be assessed during the pre-placement examination as well as when monitoring the health status of night shift workers or evaluating shift work-related health outcomes.

This narrative review summarises the current published research from two decades of work at Concordia Station, Antarctica, one of earth’s most hostile environments. Its unique location and complete inaccessibility for nine months every year makes it an invaluable long-term analogue for space. Since 2005, the European Space Agency has implemented a biomedical research program to study human adaptation in such an extreme environment. The temperatures, altitude and polar light cycle subject Concordia’s inhabitants to chronic physiological and psychological stressors. Twenty years of research on ‘White Mars’ has informed our understanding of human adaptability and health risks of life in isolated, confined and extreme (ICE) environments like Concordia. Sleep health and human psychology have been the most studied biomedical fields at Concordia. The exposure to such an extreme environment entrains acute and possible long-term health issues affecting every body system that still need to be addressed. Furthermore, as a rapid increase in space travel and use of ICE environments is expected in the upcoming decades, this review highlights the importance of further research to develop robust countermeasures to the challenges faced at Concordia station for ensuring a successful mission in any ICE environment. In particular, more research is required on women’s health, especially considering recent findings on sex differences in adaptability to space and work in ICE environments.

Background: Early retirements and decreasing job retention rates have resulted in a growing shortage of nursing staff in the healthcare systems of many countries. Recently, the World Health Organization and the European Commission have joined forces to attract and retain nurses in their systems in a period of increasing demand for healthcare services, due to population aging. While recruiting and training new nurses is a necessary long-term solution, it is equally important for policymakers to focus on retaining the current workforce, as to ensure continuity of care. Aim: This paper aims to review current literature and to discuss the key aspects of this critical issue, focusing on the concept of healthy aging and its significance as a key strategy for retaining nursing staff. Design: This discursive paper explores published literature highlighting the interaction between aging and the challenges that nursing staff faces in daily practice. It also examines global trends in retirement patterns and proposes strategies to retain the aging workforce, with a particular focus on succession planning and knowledge transfer. Results-Conclusion: Both general and more targeted approaches that have been proposed are necessary to enhance nursing staff retention. These approaches include the concept of promoting healthy aging, which can play a key role in this regard. Implications: This paper addresses the nursing staff shortage, highlighting strategies that have been proposed as to prioritize staff retention for healthcare providers and personnel managers.

Academic chemical research, especially in the laboratories that prepare very small quantities of novel chemical compounds, potentially exposes faculty, staff and students to several substances, in special conditions of manual work, for which the established methods of industrial hygiene monitoring and of medical health protection are not entirely adequate. Academic careers in chemistry develop over several decades, entailing workers’ mobility through research projects, institutions, and countries, especially in the early phase of researchers’ lives, when important life choices, such as pregnancy and childbearing, may be strongly influenced by occupational exposure to chemicals. This pilot study explores using the experimental section of published articles as proxy of activity recording in researcher’s laboratory logbook to record individual and group occupational exposure to research chemicals. Chemical researchers use substances with complete safety information, including occupational exposure limits, substances without occupational exposure limits but with safety assessment, including hazard classification, and produce completely new, original substances as the epistemological object of chemical research, the hazards of which may not be anticipated. A pilot example exemplifies data extraction from experimental descriptions and open-source safety information. Hazard indexes for the employed substances can be used to classify and rank individual experiments, such as chemical preparations, by hazard type and semi-quantitative hazard level, with more hazardous substances having higher Hazard index. However, hazards from original new substances cannot be anticipated. This approach can be shared by researchers to keep track of past occupational exposures throughout their professional lives.