Circulating white blood cell traits and Prolonged Night Shifts: A Cross-Sectional Study Based on Nurses in Guangxi

Abstract

Abstract Purpose This study aimed to elucidate the effects of long day and night shifts on immune cells in a population of nurses. Methods This cross-sectional study in December 2019 was based on a group of nurses. 1,568 physically healthy caregivers were included, including 1,540 women and 28 men. 1,093 nurses had long-term shift work (working in a rotating system for > 1 year). The receiver operating characteristic curve, Ensemble Learning, and Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate factors related to long-term shift work. Results The night shift group nurses had significantly higher MPV, PLCR, and WBC and significantly lower BASO%, ELR, MCHC, PLR, RDW-CV, and RDW-SD. ROC curves showed that WBC, PLR, ELR, RDW_CV, and BASO% were more related to the night shift. Ensemble Learning, combined with the LASSO model, finally filtered out three indicators of night shifts related to ELR, WBC, and RDW_SD. Finally, logistic regression analysis showed that the nurses' night shift situation greatly influenced two peripheral blood ELR and WBC indicators. Finally, we showed that, unlike WBC, the relative riskiness of ELR showed opposite results among junior nurses and middle-senior nurses (log (OR) 6.5 and − 7.1, respectively). Conclusion Our study found that prolonged night shifts were associated with abnormal WBC and ELR, but after strict age matching, WBC remained significantly different. These findings help to confirm that COVID-19 and tumorigenesis (e.g., breast cancer) are significantly associated with circadian rhythm disruption. However, more detailed studies are needed to confirm this.