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One of the factors that affect a person's health is the environment. For those who are already working, the work environment can have an impact on health. No exception to factory workers. Here are some of the health problems that are usually experienced by factory workers:
The circadian rhythm is disturbed
Circadian rhythms are changes that occur in physical, mental, and behavior during a 24-hour cycle. Not only humans, most living things have their own circadian system. Usually the response of the circadian system depends on the light in the environment. Factory workers, especially those who have a work system shift have a high risk of disruption of circadian rhythm work. The human body naturally enters the relaxation stage after dark or at night. Those who get their turn shift the night must fight the body's desire to naturally rest. The body is forced to remain fully functional during work.
If you work against your natural sleep cycle, you can suffer from fatigue and sleep disturbances. Fatigue can cause change mood , decreased cognitive abilities and reflexes, and made you more susceptible to disease.
Sleep disturbance
Sleep disturbances that arise in factory workers are usually the result of turnover shift from morning, noon, and night. Sleep disturbances associated with disruption of the circadian rhythm or the body's biological clock. Not only workers who get shift at night, people who are required to start work from dawn may also experience sleep disturbances. Rotation shift in factory workers plays an important role in the sleep cycle of workers. You may not be able to sleep during the day and end up not being able to work optimally during the day shift your evening.
The diagnosis of sleep disorders in factory workers is usually made by doctors using sleep journals. You will be asked what hours you work, when you sleep, how much sleep you get, and how you feel when you wake up. The doctor will also ask if you often feel tired or overslept while working. Apart from that there is a tool called actigraphy , worn like a clock, this tool will measure your movements during the day and night.
Sleep disturbances can cause worker concentration to decrease, thereby increasing the risk of accidents, both work accidents and accidents on the go.
Stress
For factory workers, the source of stress can come from many aspects, for example
- Monotonous and casual work
- Feeling that you have no control over your job and do not have the power to make decisions
- The abilities that are owned are not used in work
- Feelings of losing your job
- Low pay but high work demands
- There is no career path
Factory workers are also prone to experiencing social problems, if for example workers receive shift nights or working on Saturdays and Sundays, their social life can be disrupted because most people are active during the day and relax on weekends.
Apart from environmental influences, stress can also be caused by the body's response to changes in circadian rhythms. Change in sleep hours due to rotation shift work can cause hormonal disturbances and lead to stress.
Obesity
Research conducted on factory workers in an industry in Italy states that factory workers have the best working hours shift it turns out that more people are obese when compared to workers who work regularly every day. Workers shift also have a higher systolic blood pressure because it is influenced by increased levels of fat in the body. In addition, the signs of metabolic syndrome were also more prevalent in workers shift .
This is related to the work of the circadian rhythm or the body's biological clock. When you eat at night, the hormones in the body are already in a resting phase so that when food comes in, it takes more effort to digest the food.
Degenerative disease
One study stated that there was an increased risk of developing cancer in working women shift . Working hours shift causes the body's biological clock to become out of sync, increasing the likelihood of suffering from diabetes, obesity, and depression. Nighttime work hours and fatigue also contribute to your risk of developing heart disease. One study looked at the symptoms of metabolic syndrome in workers shift , the metabolic syndrome consists of:
- Waist circumference that is more than normal
- Increased triglyceride levels
- Increase in total cholesterol levels
- High blood pressure
- High fasting sugar levels
These symptoms are mostly found in those who have working hours from 8 pm to 4 am. Metabolic syndrome increases your risk for developing degenerative diseases later in life such as diabetes, heart attack, cancer, etc.
