Research team female night workers at 50% risk of asthma ↑…Possibility of hormone replacement therapy as a protective action
Jun 16, 2025
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This is the result of a study by Dr. Robert Maidstone of the University of Manchester, England, published in the journal ERJ Open Research (ERJ) of the European Respiratory Society (ERJ).
The research team analyzed the data of 274,541 registered workers in the UK Biobank, a British biomedical database, by dividing them into groups such as asthma, gender, and work type (day, night, and night). 5.3% of the people had asthma, of which 1.9% of the patients had moderate or severe asthma using inhalers or asthma medications.
As a result of the analysis, female night workers had a 50% higher risk of moderate and severe asthma compared to day workers. In particular, female night workers who did not use postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had an 89% higher risk of asthma than day workers. However, this increased risk was not observed in women using HRT.
In the case of men, night workers had a 5% lower risk of asthma than day workers, but it was analyzed that the difference was not statistically significant.
Dr. Maidstone "This study shows that women who work regularly at night have a higher risk of moderate and severe asthma than day workers"This may be because shift work disrupts the biological clock and can affect levels of hormones such as testosterone between men and women." he estimated. This result then suggests that HRT may have a protective effect against asthma in women working at night"Further studies and randomized controlled trials are needed, it added.
Meanwhile, studies have shown that women who often work overtime are exposed to risks from various health problems, including cancer, which is closely related to disturbances in the circadian rhythm. Canadian studies show that women who have worked overtime for more than 20 years can have a 73% increase in early menopause, Danish studies show that women who work overtime more than three times a week are twice as likely to develop breast cancer as ordinary women, and U.S. studies show that women who work overtime often have a 24% higher risk of advanced ovarian cancer and 48% higher risk of borderline ovarian cancer.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
