Night Work and the Risk of Cancer among Men - Assignment 3

Night Work and the Risk of Cancer among Men Name: Institution: Working at night comes with its own set of challenges; this article tries to establish if there is any link, between the night shift lighting conditions and the prevalence of developing cancer in men. Basically, working at night, requires a light source as it is dark. When one is exposed to light while in the dark, there is suppression of a hormone called Melatonin (Parent, Zein, Rousseau, Pintos & Siemiatycki, 2012). During the middle of the night, this suppression takes to the peak. The suppression of this hormone due to light exposure does inhibit or interrupt with the circadian rhythms, which leads to increased production of the reproductive hormones, while at the same time reducing the pineal gland’s anti-cancer effects. These physiological changes caused by exposure to light in the dark, can lead to tumor development. These findings are based on the evidence that have been attested by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, although much of the evidence is based experiment rather than epidemiology (American Cancer Society, 2013). In the beginning the study was to concentrate on the occupational hazards that would lead to cancer in men, but later narrowed to the effects of light at night. The study procedures were accredited by the ethics committees and all the participants filed their consent. The study set the times specifics of the night shifts as at 1 AM to 2 AM. The participants had to work in a job that required him to put in one hour between 1 and 2 AM for a period not less than six months (Parent et al., 2012). The total number of years within any given job, put in at night, gave the cumulative index. The participants had to be between the ages of 35-70 years and also had to be residing within the greater Montreal section. The study focused on all the patients that had been diagnosed with pathological cancer, between the year 1979 and 1985 all of whom totaled to 4576, but only 3730 were interviewed successfully. 23 sites of the anatomy were tested and the most common cancers that were found in the patients included the cancer of lung, colon, rectum, pancreases, esophagus, prostate, bladder, melanoma and the stomach. To come up with the successful candidates for the study, the electoral list was used as it is frequently updated in the province of Quebec. To avoid bias, control groups were chosen at random within the same age group and geographical area. 740 participants were picked initially, but only 533 out of the total were actually interviewed successfully. Data collection was done through face to face interviews, which took approximately two and a half hours. So as to determine whether the night shift had any effect on the patients, the interview collected information on the job descriptions, life styles and socio-demographic characteristics of the participants (Parent et al., 2012). To analyze the data obtained, different regression models were used to for the different types of cancer, taking into considerations the elements of risk, age, income levels, education, ancestry, duration of work and the type of work (Parent et al., 2012). To improve on the models other covariates including the following were also taken into considerations; beverages they often used among, tea, coffee, beer and the rates. Occupational exposure was measured with reference to asbestos, silica and the aromatic amines that the participants came in contact with. Their physical activity was measured alongside the recreational activities and body mass index (American Cancer Society, 2013). Their smoking history was also taken into account, with respect to whether, they smoked and if they did, how often and the duration in years, while those that had quit indicated how it had been since they last smoked. Looking through the results the hypothesis is quite controversial, with some of the evidence pointing in the direction of a relative association between the night shift and cancer. Much of the controversy is related to the questions of whether the night shift does contribute to the development of cancer or more of a chance or bias. However the study brings to the light new information on the relationship that may exists between the night shifts and the types of cancer that may develop in men. This is evidence that have not been established in the past. The evidence suggests that there are more chances of developing cancer on the various anatomical sites that were t...