The association between shift work and chronic kidney disease in manual labor workers using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES 2011-2014).

Objective: Kidneys are organs having a biological clock, and it is well known that the disruption of the circadian rhythm increases the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD), including the decline of renal and proteinuria. Because shift work causes circadian disruption, it can directly or indirectly affect the incidence of chronic kidney disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the association between shift work and chronic kidney disease using a Korean representative survey dataset.

Methods: This study was comprised of 3504 manual labor workers over 20 years of age from data from the fifth and sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2014). The work schedules were classified into two types: day work and shift work. The estimated glomerular filtration rate, which is the ideal marker of renal function, was estimated according to the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration creatinine equation, and chronic kidney disease was defined as urinary albumin to a creatinine ratio equal to or high than 30 mg/g and/or estimated glomerular filtration rate lower than 60 mL/min/1.73 m. The cross-tabulation analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to confirm the association between shift work and chronic kidney disease stratified by gender.

Results: The risk of CKD showed a significant increase (odds ratio = 2.04, 95% confidence interval = 1.22, 3.41) in the female worker group. The same results were obtained after all confounding variables were adjusted (odds ratio = 2.34, 95% confidence interval = 1.35, 4.07). However, the results of the male worker group were not significant.

Conclusions: In this study using nationally representative surveys, we found that the risk of CKD was higher female workers and shift work. Future prospective cohort studies will be needed to clarify the causal relationship between shift work and CKD.