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  • Associations between shift work characteristics, shift work schedules, sleep and burnout in North American police officers: a cross-sectional study

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Occupational and environmental medicine
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Associations between shift work characteristics, shift work schedules, sleep and burnout in North American police officers: a cross-sectional study
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  • Published on: 3 September 2020
    Shift work and burnout in police officers: a risk assessment
    • Scott A. Peterson, Research Assistant Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Aus
    • Other Contributors:
      • Alexander P. Wolkow, Research Fellow
      • Steven W. Lockley, Associate Professor
      • Conor S. O'Brien, Project Manager
      • Jason P. Sullivan, Project Manager
      • Charles A. Czeisler, Frank Baldino, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Sleep Medicine
      • Shantha M.W. Rajaratnam, Professor
      • Laura K. Barger, Assistant Professor

    Dear Dr. Kawada,

    Thanks for your comment on our article, Shift work and burnout in police officers: a risk assessment. We appreciate that the risk of burnout may be multi-factorial and the relative contribution of each factor may vary by occupation. We did not examine work-related stress and conflict but appreciate that such factors may contribute to burnout risk in police officers. We maintain, however, our findings that sleepiness, inadequate sleep, irregular schedules, mandatory overtime, long shifts and night shifts are factors associated with elevated burnout risk in this population. We also controlled for age in our analyses and found that age was significant in the adjusted models examining shift work, sleep and their association with Depersonalisation and Personal Accomplishment. We agree that more research into the factors contributing to burnout and programs to mitigate it in safety-sensitive shift working occupations is necessary.

    Sincerely,
    Scott A Peterson, Alexander P Wolkow, Steven W Lockley, Conor S O'Brien, Salim Qadri, Jason P Sullivan, Charles A Czeisler, Shantha M W Rajaratnam and Laura K Barger

    Conflict of Interest:
    Competing interests: SAP, APW, JPS, SQ and CO report no conflicts of interest. SMWR reports that he has served as a consultant through his institution to Philips Respironics, EdanSafe, National Transport Commission, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Rail, Bus and Train Union, Tontine Group, Australian Workers’ Union, Transport Accident Commission, Meda Consumer Healthcare, New South Wales Department of Education and Communities, and has through his institution received grants from Philips Respironics and Vanda Pharmaceuticals and reimbursements for conference travel expenses from Vanda Pharmaceuticals. SMWR currently serves as a consult to and is a programme leader for the Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity. SMWR institution has received equipment donations or other support from Compumedics, Philips Lighting, Optalert and Tyco Healthcare. SMWR is a former president of the Australasian Sleep Association and is Director of the Sleep Health Foundation. SMWR has also served as an expert witness and/or consultant to shift work organisations. LKB reports research support from Cephalon, NFL charities, Sysco and San Francisco Bar Pilots. LKB has received consulting/lecture fees or served as a board member for Alertness Solution, Ceridian, Davis Joint Unified School Board, San Jose State University Foundation, Pugot Sound Pilots, Sygma and Torvec. SWL has no conflicts of interests directly related to the research or results reported in this paper. SWL holds a process patent for ‘Systems and methods for determining and/or controlling sleep quality’, which is assigned to the Brigham and Women's Hospital per Hospital policy. SWL has received consulting fees from the BHP Billiton, EyeJust Inc., Noble Insights, and Team C Racing; honoraria and/or paid travel from BHP Billiton, DIN, Emory University, IES, Ineos, MIT, Roxbury Latin School, SLTBR, Solemma and Teague; has current consulting contracts with Akili Interactive; Apex 2100 Ltd.; Consumer Sleep Solutions; Headwaters Inc.; Hintsa Performance AG; Light Cognitive; Lighting Science Group Corporation; Mental Workout; PlanLED; Six Senses; Stantec; and Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering; has received unrestricted equipment gifts from Bionetics Corporation and F. Lux Software LLC; royalties from Oxford University Press. SWL has served as a paid expert for legal proceedings related to light, sleep and health. SWL is a programme leader for the CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, Australia. CAC reports grants from Cephalon Inc., Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc. Inc., National Football League Charities, Optum, Philips Respironics Inc., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, ResMed Foundation, San Francisco Bar Pilots, Sanofi S.A., Sanofi-Aventis Inc., Schneider Inc., Sepracor Inc., Mary Ann & Stanley Snider via Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Sysco Corp., Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., and Wake Up Narcolepsy; and consulting fees from Bose Corporation, Boston Red Sox, Columbia River Bar Pilots, Samsung Electronics, Quest Diagnostics Inc., Teva Pharma Australia, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., Washington State Board of Pilotage Commissioners, and Physician’s Seal; lecture fees from Ganésco Inc., Zurich Insurance Company Ltd., American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, Eisenhower Medical Center, M. Davis and Company, UC San Diego, and University of Washington; and fees for serving as a member of an advisory board for Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, the Klarman Family Foundation, and the AARP. In addition, CAC holds a number of process patents in the field of sleep/circadian rhythms (e.g., photic resetting of the human circadian pacemaker), and holds an equity interest in Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. CAC is the incumbent of an endowed professorship provided to Harvard University by Cephalon Inc. Since 1985, CAC has also served as an expert on various legal and technical cases related to sleep and/or circadian rhythms including those involving the following commercial entities: Casper Sleep Inc., Comair/Delta Airlines, Complete General Construction Company, FedEx, Greyhound, HG Energy LLC, Purdue Pharma, LP, South Carolina Central Railroad Co., Steel Warehouse Inc., Stric-Lan Companies LLC, Texas Premier Resource LLC and United Parcel Service (UPS). CAC received royalties from the New England Journal of Medicine; McGraw Hill; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Penguin; and Philips Respironics Inc. for the Actiwatch-2 and Actiwatch-Spectrum devices. CAC interests were reviewed and managed by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Partners HealthCare in accordance with their conflict of interest policies.
  • Published on: 27 August 2020
    Shift work and burnout in police officers: a risk assessment

    Peterson et al. examined associations between shift work and burnout in 3140 police officers with special reference to sleep duration and sleepiness. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, shift schedules (irregular, rotating, fixed), shift characteristics (night, duration, frequency, work hours), sleep duration and sleepiness were used for the analysis. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) of long shifts and mandatory overtime for emotional exhaustion were 1.91 (1.35 to 2.72) and 1.37 (1.14 to 1.65), respectively. Adjusted OR (95% CI) of night shifts for depersonalisation was 1.32 (1.05 to 1.66). In addition, Adjusted ORs (95% Cis) of irregular schedules for emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation were 1.91 (1.44 to 2.54) and 1.39 (1.02 to 1.89), respectively. Furthermore, adjusted ORs (95% Cis) of sleeping <6 hours and excessive sleepiness for motional exhaustion were 1.60 (1.33 to 1.93) and 1.81 (1.50 to 2.18), respectively. I have a comment about their study.

    Ogundipe et al. determined factors burnout among 204 medical doctors undergoing residency training. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were used for the analysis. Adjusted OR (95% CI) of call duty as being not stressful for emotional exhaustion was 0.52 (0.29, 0.97). In contrast, adjusted OR (95% CI) of emotional distress, based on GHQ score of ≥3, for emotional exhaustion was 6.97 (3.28, 14.81). In addition, adjusted OR (95% CI) of absence of doc...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.