(BBC) 18 January 2008:

It’s the belief of many that shift work (whether we define it as regular but evening and night hours, or changeable hours) is detrimental to health. However, a Danish study has found that it is much more dangerous for women than it is for men.

Men who did shift work were no more likely than other men to claim a disability pension. But women who did were one third more likley to do so than women who did not.

Why this is so is still the subject of some controversy: the explanation most strongly put forward at the moment is that women were more likely to have household responsibilities, like childcare, that were not as time flexible as their working hours, thus increasing the stress upon them.