[Shiftwork related problems in hospital workers].

Shift and night work are one of the most important risk factors for health and well-being of hospital workers, in relation to interference at biological (perturbation of the sleep/wake cycle and circadian rhythms), occupational (impaired performance, errors, accidents), health (digestive, neuropsychological, cardiovascular disorders and, probably, cancer) and social (work/family conflicts) level. Such negative effects show a high interindividual variability due to several interacting factors, dealing with individual (age, gender, personality, life styles), living (marital status, children, social activities, commuting), and working (physical and mental workload, human relations, motivation, work hours and schedules) conditions. This report deals with a short review of some recent surveys carried out in Italian hospital shift workers, concerning main discomforts and troubles, psycho-physical conditions, work ability, work satisfaction, work/family conflict, and organization of shift schedules according to ergonomic criteria.