Shift work, accelerated biological aging and mortality risk in US adults: a national prospective cohort study.

Authors

Ruhan Wang, Keyu Yuan, Tingting Li, Buyun Liu, Wei Bao, Shuang Rong

Published in

International archives of occupational and environmental health. Volume 99. Issue 7. Sep 06, 2026. Epub Sep 06, 2026.

Abstract

To examine the association between shift work and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the U.S. population and assess whether biological age acceleration mediates this relationship.
A prospective cohort study included 7548 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2010, with mortality follow-up through 2019.
Shift work included regular night, evening, or rotating shifts versus daytime schedules.
Primary outcomes were all-cause, cardiovascular (CVD), and cancer mortality.
Among 7548 participants (mean follow-up 11.6 years), 358 deaths occurred. Shift work was associated with significantly increased all-cause mortality after full adjustment (HR = 1.52; 95% CI 1.09-2.13). CVD and cancer mortality associations were non-significant. No statistically significant interactions were observed in subgroup analyses of all-cause mortality. Shift workers showed greater PhenoAge acceleration (β = 0.39 years), which statistically accounted for 6.18% of the association between shift work and all-cause mortality.
Shift work was associated with higher all-cause mortality and greater PhenoAge acceleration. PhenoAge acceleration may statistically account for a small proportion of this association, although causal mediation cannot be inferred.

PMID:
42701914
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Sep 2026.

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