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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on February 22, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 163(8):726-730; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj096
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

Original Contribution

A Prospective Study of Night Shift Work, Sleep Duration, and Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Honglei Chen1, Eva Schernhammer2, Michael A. Schwarzschild3 and Alberto Ascherio2,4

1 Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC
2 Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
3 Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
4 Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

Correspondence to Dr. Honglei Chen, Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 111 T. W. Alexander Drive, P.O. Box 12233, Mail Drop A3-05, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 (e-mail: chenh2{at}niehs.nih.gov).

The authors prospectively investigated whether working rotating night shifts was associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease among 84,794 female nurses who reported years of night shift work in 1988 (the US Nurses' Health Study). After 975,912 person-years of follow-up (1988–2000), 181 incident Parkinson's disease cases were documented. Compared with nurses who never worked rotating night shifts, those with 15 years or more of night shift work had a 50% lower risk of Parkinson's disease after adjustment for age and smoking (95% confidence interval: 0.26, 0.97; ptrend = 0.01). Sleep duration was positively associated with Parkinson's disease risk: The relative risk was 1.84 (95% confidence interval: 0.99, 3.42) when comparing nurses who reported 9 or more hours of sleep per day with those who slept 6 hours or less (ptrend = 0.005). These data suggest that working night shifts may be protective against Parkinson's disease or that low tolerance for night shift work is an early marker of Parkinson's disease. Conversely, habitual longer sleep duration may be an earlier marker of Parkinson's disease. Because of the novelty and the exploratory nature of these findings, confirmation is needed.

cohort studies; Parkinson disease; sleep; sleep disorders, circadian rhythm

Abbreviations: NSAID, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug


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