Atypical Work Hours and Adaptation in Law Enforcement: Targets for Disease Prevention

This research project has three overarching goals. The first is to characterize the adverse health effects resulting from the biological perturbations caused by police officers’ atypical work hours. The second is to identify early biological indicators of those adverse effects. The third is to identify strategies to mitigate those effects.

This proposed mixed-methods study involves a diverse sample of 200 police officers who participated in the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study. BCOPS data provides a long-term quantification of shift work (23 years of payroll day-to-day records) and work factors among participants. The applicant proposes that this data may demonstrate causal relationships between exposure to atypical work hours and changes in critical disease indicators. BCOPS data will be supplemented by collection of physiologic and psychosocial information for study participants. The officers will also be surveyed to characterize their strategies for adapting to atypical work schedules. The applicant will analyze the data from this study to identify strategies to mitigate the adverse health effects resulting from officers’ atypical work hours.

Rigorous statistical methods will be used to analyze the data longitudinally (linear mixed models, latent transition analysis, generalized linear mixed models, repeated measures latent class analysis). Latent Class Analysis and Latent Transition Analysis will be used to classify groups that are adapted or maladapted to working atypical hours.

"Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law," and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14). CA/NCF