Abstract

Background: Night work generates irregular lifestyles and is associated with an increase in the morbidity of workers, especially women. The possible causes of this increase would be excessive energy consumption and cardiovascular risk, so the objective of the present study is to determine the relationship between nutritional status, diet adequacy, cardiovascular risk and sleep hours in women who work in the night shift of a fruit company. Methods: Cross-sectional study with a sample of 61 women working night shifts from a fruit company in Chile. Body composition and distribution were determined by tetrapolar bioimpedance and the calculation of the waist/height index and waist/hip index respectively. The contribution of the diet was quantified by means of food registration, the level of physical activity through the IPAQ questionnaire and the sleep questionnaire of the National Institute of Food Technology (INTA) of the University of Chile was applied. Results: 85% of the women were overweight or obese (n = 52). The frequency of sedentary lifestyle was higher in women who were overweight (n = 26; 100%) and obese (n = 25; 96%), on the other hand, the hours of sleep were lower in these nutritional states than in women with normal weight (p < 0.02). Sedentary lifestyle (OR = 22.5; 95% CI: 1.5-320.3; p = 0.02) and the few hours of sleep (OR = 7.2; 95% CI: 1.1-47.2; p = 0.04) were found as risk factors for overweight or obesity in two multivariate logistic regression models. Conclusions: The majority of women were overweight or obese, as well as increased cardiovascular risk depending on sedentary lifestyle and poor sleep habits.