ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.

Sec. Obesity

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1573203

This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Activity Behavior, Obesity, and Stress as Crucial Sources of Health Issues in Stressful Occupations, Volume IIView all 4 articles

The roles of lifestyle factors and genetic risk in the association between night shift work and cholelithiasis: a prospective cohort study

Provisionally accepted
Wangping HeWangping He1Ningning MiNingning Mi1Kecheng JinKecheng Jin1Boru JinBoru Jin1Ruyang ZhongRuyang Zhong1Zhen LiuZhen Liu1Yanyan LinYanyan Lin1Hengwei ZhangHengwei Zhang1Ping YuePing Yue1Bin XiaBin Xia2Qiangsheng HeQiangsheng He2Jinqiu YuanJinqiu Yuan2Wenbo MengWenbo Meng1*
  • 1The First Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China, Lan Zhou, China
  • 2Clinical Research Center, Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China

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Background: Night shift work has been associated with adverse health outcomes. Whether shift work is associated with cholelithiasis remains uncertain, and the roles of genetic risk and lifestyle factors in cholelithiasis risk are unclear. Methods: We conducted a prospective analysis of 219,810 UK Biobank participants. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the association between night shift work and incident cholelithiasis. Polygenic risk score analyses and causal mediation analyses were performed to investigate the roles of the genetic risk and lifestyle factors in cholelithiasis risk. Results: Compared with day workers, the HR and 95% CI of cholelithiasis was 1.09 (1.01-1.17) for individuals with rarely/some night shifts and 1.18 (1.04-1.35) for those with usual/permanent night shifts. Additionally, those with a higher frequency of night shifts and a longer length of each night shift were associated with an increased risk of cholelithiasis. Notably, individuals with usual/permanent night shifts and high genetic risk exhibited the highest risk of cholelithiasis (HR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.21-1.81). Mediation analysis indicated that a substantial portion (24.64%) of the association was mediated by BMI, followed by unhealthy alcohol intake (4.50%) and sedentary time (1.82%). Conclusions: Night shift work is associated with an increased risk of cholelithiasis, with this relationship being largely mediated by lifestyle factors. Reducing the frequency and length of night shifts may help mitigate the incidence of cholelithiasis among night shift workers, particularly for those with heightened genetic susceptibility.

Keywords: Night shift work, Cholelithiasis, genetic risk, lifestyle factors, cohort study

Received: 08 Feb 2025; Accepted: 07 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 He, Mi, Jin, Jin, Zhong, Liu, Lin, Zhang, Yue, Xia, He, Yuan and Meng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Wenbo Meng, The First Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China, Lan Zhou, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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