title: The impact of meal timing on cardiometabolic syndrome indicators in shift workers.
abstract: The aims of this study were to 1) compare the inflammatory potential of night- and day-shift nurses' diets with regard to time of day and work status and 2) explore how the timing of food intake during work and off-work is associated with cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS) risk factors between these two groups. Female nurses (N = 17; 8 day-shift and 9 night-shift) reported food intake over 9 days. On a middle day off of work, metabolic parameters were measured after an overnight fast. Energy/macronutrient intake and inflammatory potential of dietary intake (as assessed via the Dietary Inflammatory IndexTM) were calculated for nurses' workdays, work nights, off-work days, and off-work nights. Work-night total food intake (grams) accounted for a significant amount of variance in CMS risk factors for night-shift nurses only. Increased total gram consumption during night-shift nurses' work nights was associated with increased lipid levels - independent of the macronutrient composition of the food consumed. Alternatively, for night-shift nurses, work-day intake of several food parameters accounted for a significant proportion of variance in HDL cholesterol levels, with higher intake associated with higher HDL levels. For both day- and night-shift nurses, food intake during the day was more pro-inflammatory regardless of shift type or work status. Our novel approach of combining time-of-day-specific and work-day-specific analyses of dietary inflammatory factors and macronutrient composition with measurement of CMS risk factors suggests a link between meal timing and cardiometabolic health for shift-working nurses.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa , AL , USA.
authors.forename: Hylton E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Molzof
authors.affiliation: b Cancer Prevention and Control Program, and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.|c Connecting Health Innovations , LLC , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: b Cancer Prevention and Control Program, and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.|d WJB Dorn Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Burch
authors.affiliation: b Cancer Prevention and Control Program, and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.|c Connecting Health Innovations , LLC , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shivappa
authors.affiliation: b Cancer Prevention and Control Program, and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.|c Connecting Health Innovations , LLC , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hebert
authors.affiliation: e Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA.
authors.forename: Russell L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: e Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA.
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Gamble
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D062407:Meals; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Circadian misalignment; dietary inflammatory index; dietary patterns