Citation

Keran CM, Duchon JC, Smith TJ. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1994; 13(2): 113-123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

As part of a larger shiftwork project, the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted an extended workday study at an underground North American metal mine. A group of 25 underground shiftworkers changed from a 7-by-2, 8-hour shift schedule to a 4-by-4, 12-hour shift schedule. Data collected for both schedules consisted of subjective, psychomotor and physiological measures. The focus of this paper is to determine whether older workers (mean age = 49.6) manifest increased levels of fatigue compared to younger workers (mean age = 26.5) on 8-hour and 12-hour schedules. Results indicate that worker age influences all three types of measures for both schedules. However, these age differences do not appear to be more pronounced on the 12-hour relative to the 8-hour schedule. It can be argued, therefore, that older workers have no more difficulties with a 12-hour than with an 8-hour schedule.