Night Shift Work Increases the Risk of Asthma

Shift work causes misalignment between our internal clock and daily behavioural cycles and is associated with metabolic disorders and cancer. Here, we describe the relationship between shift work and prevalent asthma in >280,000 UK Biobank participants. Compared to day workers, permanent night shift workers had a higher likelihood of moderate/severe asthma (odds ratio (OR) 1.36 (1.03-1.8)) and all asthma (OR 1.23 (1.03-1.46) after adjustment for known major confounders). The public health implications of this finding are far-reaching due to the high prevalence and co-occurrence of both asthma and shift work.