Dietary patterns, metabolic markers and subjective sleep measures in resident physicians

In order to maintain an active roster of hospital staff throughout the day, shiftwork is inevitable. However, shiftwork is known to be associated with several drawbacks, including loss of sleep and lifestyle disruptions (physical activity, dietary consumption, metabolism). As the level of evidence exploring the metabolic and dietary characteristics of medical staff in training who participate in shiftwork remained unsatisfactory, Mota et al. (2013) conducted their study to investigate the potential impact of shiftwork on resident physicians’ anthropometrics, dietary intake, sleep patterns and metabolism, and whether there would be any observed differences between genders. Data were collected on several parameters from a sample of 72 resident physicians (20 of which were men), including anthropometry (height, weight, body mass index [BMI], and waist circumference), nutrition (3-day dietary recall evaluated by the Adapted Healthy Eating Index), physical activity (Baecke questionnaire), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI), fasting metabolism (lipids, cortisol, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP], glucose, and insulin), and sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale; ESS). A majority of the participants were noted to be substantially overweight or obese (65% of men and 21% of women), with men demonstrating higher BMI scores and reporting more weight gain after starting their residencies compared to female residents. While both genders practiced poor nutritional habits, such as high consumption of sweets, cholesterol, saturated fats, caffeine, and low consumption of fruits and vegetables, men had substantially higher PSQI scores compared to women (7.5 for men, 5.9 for women). Metabolic analyses showed that women had substantially higher serum levels of cortisol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol when compared to men, while the majority of participants displayed serological and metabolic derangements (elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, prevalent hypertriglyceridemia and elevated hs-CRP). Furthermore, an increased pervasiveness of daytime sleepiness and inferior sleep quality was observed in the participants. The authors conclude that their findings raise the necessity of developing health surveillance protocols for residents and to reevaluate the current division of resident labor, in addition to placing an approval process prior to assigning medical residents extra night shifts in order to prevent any adverse health events. [NPID: Metabolic variables, residency training, shiftwork, nutrition, sleep]

Year: 2013

Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23964589/