ABSTRACT

Employees working at night are at increased risk of diabetes. A possible mechanism is related to differences in glucose regulation at night. Laboratory simulated night work studies show regulation of blood glucose is impaired at night. Regular exposure to high glucose levels at night may explain the observed relationship between night work and diabetes. We performed a field study of 19 nonsmoking women from the health-care sector to investigate how night work and the composition of meals affect post-prandial blood glucose levels. Blood glucose levels were self-assessed by finger-prick blood sampling using the Beurer blood glucose monitoring system. Measurements were done before and 15, 30, 60, and 120 min after different test meals: a nighttime high sugar meal during a night shift and during a day shift, and a reference (low sugar) meal under these same two conditions. There was a statistically significant difference in blood glucose concentration between the four test meal conditions (P = .0086). Post-meal blood glucose levels following the night-shift meals, compared to following daytime meals, rose faster and remained elevated for longer a duration of time. At the 15 min time point following the high sugar test meal, the blood glucose concentration was 8.3 mmol/L when consumed at night vs. 7.3 mmol/L when consumed during the day. We found no difference in area under the blood glucose concentration–time curve (AUC) after consumption of the high or low sugar test meals during the night shift compared with consumption of them during the day. Our findings indicate the glucose levels in response to food intake by female night working healthcare assistants are higher following the nighttime compared with daytime consumption of a high sugar content meal. However, we did not find a difference in total glucose exposure across time (assessed as AUC) after eating a high vs. low sugar meal during the night shift.

摘要

夜间工作的员工患糖尿病的风险增加。可能的机制与夜间血糖调节的差异有关。实验室模拟的夜间工作研究表明，夜间血糖调节受到损害。晚上定期暴露于高血糖水平可能解释了夜间工作与糖尿病之间的关系。我们对来自卫生保健领域的19名非吸烟女性进行了实地研究，以调查夜班工作和膳食组成如何影响餐后血糖水平。血糖水平通过使用Beurer血糖监测系统的手指刺血采样进行自我评估。测量是在不同的测试餐之前和之后的15、30、60和120分钟进行的：在夜班和日班期间进行夜间高糖餐，以及在这两个相同条件下的参考（低糖）餐。四种测试膳食条件之间的血糖浓度在统计学上有显着差异（P= .0086）。与日间进餐相比，夜班进餐后餐后血糖水平上升更快，并且在较长时间内保持较高水平。在高糖测试餐后的15分钟时间点，晚上食用时的血糖浓度为8.3 mmol / L，而白天食用时的血糖浓度为7.3 mmol / L。我们发现，夜班期间食用高糖或低糖测试餐后的血糖浓度-时间曲线（AUC）下的面积与白天相比无差异。我们的研究结果表明，与白天白天摄入高糖含量餐后相比，夜间工作的女性夜间护理助手对食物摄入的葡萄糖水平更高。然而，