MRC DTP in Precision Medicine

Exploring the impact of Shift Work and Sleep on Police Officers' Health and Wellbeing

Supervisors 

Dr Evangelia Demou, School of Health and Wellbeing (SHW), University of Glasgow

Dr Judith Allardyce, Centre of Clinical Brain Sciences, Centre of genomic and experimental medicine, University of Edinburgh

Professor, Martie Van Tongeren, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester 

Dr Theocharis Kromydas, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow 

Summary

Sleep duration and quality are linked to chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease and depression. The workplace can have a major impact on sleep. Research has demonstrated that police officers are often affected by sleeping disorders and these have been associated with adverse health, safety, and performance outcomes. Work-related factors, such as shift work and long working hours, can exacerbate these issues and the potential health outcomes associated with poor sleep. Understanding the extent of the problem in UK police officers and staff is necessary to determine whether workplace sleep disorder prevention, screening, and treatment programs can reduce these risks.

The aim of this PhD studentship is to investigate the relationship between sleep patterns (e.g. sleep duration, chronotype, sleep problems, shift work) and health (including overall health, mental health, obesity, diabetes, cognition, and cancer e.g. breast cancer/others) in police officers and staff across the UK using the Airwave Health Monitoring Study, to improve our understanding of determinants of health and wellbeing. It will use data from the largest police cohort study, the Airwave Health Monitoring Study, and use rapidly developing causal inference methodologies and machine learning approaches to develop predictive models for stratifying individuals according to differences in clinically meaningful outcomes.