Reported bruxism and stress experience in media personnel with or without irregular shift work

Abstract

A standardized questionnaire was mailed to all employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with irregular shift work (n = 750) and to an equal number of randomly selected controls with regular 8‐hour daytime work. The aim was to analyze whether irregular shift work, workload in terms of weekly working hours, dissatisfaction with current workshift schedule, health‐care use, age and gender were associated with self‐reported bruxism and experienced stress. The response rates were 58.3% (n = 874, 53.7% men) overall, 82.3% (n = 617, 56.6% men) for irregular shift workers and 34.3% (n = 257, 46.7% men) for the regular daytime work group. Those with irregular shifts were more often dissatisfied with their current workshift schedule than those in daytime work (25.1% versus 5.1%, P < 0.01). Irregular shift work was significantly associated with more frequent stress (P < 0.001), but not with self‐reported bruxism. Workers dissatisfied with their current schedule reported both bruxism (P < 0.01) and stress (P < 0.001) more often than those who felt satisfied. In multivariate analyses, frequent bruxism was significantly associated with dissatisfaction with current workshift schedule (P < 0.05), number of dental visits (P < 0.05), and visits to a physician (P < 0.01), and negatively associated with age (P < 0.05), while severe stress was significantly positively associated with number of visits to a physician (P < 0.001). It was concluded that dissatisfaction with one's workshift schedule and not merely irregular shift work may aggravate stress and bruxism.