Introduction and objective:
Life style connected with many-year shift work generates disorders of the day/night cycle and lowers the health potential. The objective of the study was evaluation of the selected health behaviors of women employed as shift workers, according to the level of education.

Material and methods:
The study was carried out in Krakow in a group of 240 women aged 20–40, employed in tourism, hotel business, culture or communications, with higher (n=136) or secondary (n=104) education. The instrument was a survey questionnaire including items concerning: dietary habits, physical activity, use of psychoactive substances, level of occupational stress, and perception of the impact of shift work on the evaluated aspects of life style. The results were analyzed using chi square test for independence with SPSS Statistics 24.0.0 software, with the test probability of p<0.05.

Results:
Regarding dietary habits, women employed on shift work usually consumed 3–4 meals a day (68.1%) or ate irregularly (51.7%). 80% of the group declared that the shift work had a negative impact on their diet. The women engaged in physical activity 3–4 times a week (33.3%), 1–2 times a week (21.7%) or less often (24.2%). The majority (75.0%) noticed a negative impact of shift work on the level of their physical activity; 15.0% declared tobacco addiction; 90% of the respondents drank alcohol, most of them several times a month (30.0%). They basically drank beer (37.6%) or wine (36.4%). Most of the women (71.7%) perceived a relationship between shift work and experiencing the effects of psychological stress. They most often (69.2%) mentioned generalized fatigue. No significant relationship was found between the level of education and the evaluated aspects of life style of women doing shift work.

Conclusions:
The presented study showed the limited scale of health-oriented behaviours in the life style of women employed as shift workers, independent of their education level.