The relationship between lifestyle, night shift pattern, mental health and the trajectories of nurses’ metabolic diseases: a cohort study of nurses

Objective The study aimed to examine the relationship between lifestyle, night shift pattern, mental health and nurses’ metabolic diseases. Methods We included 910 nurses from 2018 to 2022. The Growth mixture model was used to identify the trajectories of metabolic diseases among nurses. And multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between lifestyle, night shift pattern, mental health and the trajectories of metabolic diseases. Results Three distinct trajectories were identified: Maintaining-Low, Chronically-High group, Maintaining-Low group. Compared to the Maintaining-low group, the correlates of Chronically-high group were lack of dietary preference for vegetables and exercise. Low depression scores, high anxiety scores, night shift pattern with a slow increase in metabolic diseases. Conclusion The changes of the number of metabolic diseases among nurses in China are heterogeneous. Lack of dietary preference for vegetables and exercise are significantly related to nurses’ metabolic disorders. Among nurses with high initial health level, the correlates of the increase in the number of metabolic diseases are not unhealthy lifestyles, but mental health and night shift pattern.