TY - JOUR T1 - Shift work with and without night shifts and breast cancer risk in a cohort study from Finland JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med DO - 10.1136/oemed-2022-108347 SP - oemed-2022-108347 AU - Mikko Härmä AU - Anneli Ojajärvi AU - Aki Koskinen AU - Jenny-Anne Lie AU - Johnni Hansen Y1 - 2022/08/10 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/10/oemed-2022-108347.abstract N2 - Objectives To examine the association of shift work with and without night work with breast cancer among women in the public sector.Methods Using the Finnish Public Sector cohort study (N=33 359, mean age of 40.6 years at baseline), we investigated the associations of shift work and potential confounders with incident breast cancer. Exposure to permanent day work or shift work was defined from first two consecutive surveys from 2000, 2004, 2008 or 2012 and past information on exposure in a subcohort (n=20 786). Incident cases of breast cancer (n=1129) were retrieved from the National Cancer Register and the cohort members were followed to the end of 2016. HR and 95% CI from Cox proportional hazard regression models were calculated.Results Shift work with and without night shifts was not overall associated with breast cancer. When stratified according to age, both shift work without nights (HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.60) and shift work with nights (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.04 to 4.01) were associated with an increased risk after a period of 10 years or more follow-up among women aged 50 years or older, when adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, children, smoking, alcohol and body mass index. In a subgroup with past information on exposure to shift work, the increased risk by longer exposure to shift work was not significant.Conclusions This study provides support for an increased risk of breast cancer among elderly shift workers. However, insufficient information on exposure and intensity of night work may attenuate the risk estimates.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. ER -