Cáncer de seno en mujeres que realizan trabajo nocturno: revisión de alcance, 2009 - 2019

Abstract

Introduction: Work has been evolving in parallel with industrialization, adapting to the great labor demands that force the permanent availability of people, which results in the implementation of night shifts, adding hours and permanent connection with the work environment. Approximately 15-20% of workers work night shifts, reporting not only short-term risks such as a deficit in alertness during that time, but also long-term effects. Some researchers have shown evidence of an association between night work and breast neoplasms, however, the time of exposure and onset of the disease has not been unified. From occupational health and safety, the need has arisen to identify the relationship between night work and this neoplasm in order to offer approaches that reinforce and improve the health management of workers. Objective: To characterize breast cancer in women who perform night work based on a review of the scientific literature of the last decade. Material and methods: A scoping review of the literature was carried out, applying the MeSH terms defined in the PubMed, Scopus and Web Of Science databases and 19 full-text articles were selected, in English, published between the years 2009 - 2019. Results: In the articles reviewed to study the relationship between night work and breast cancer, it was found that 47.3% of the studies show a statistically significant association between these variables, 36.8% found no relationship, while the 15.7% were inconclusive. Conclusion: Our scoping review found that approximately half of the selected articles provided evidence of a statistically significant association, expressed as an increased risk of breast cancer in night shift workers, especially in pre-menopausal women, the rest of the studies did not found a relationship or were not conclusive.