Risk Factors Associated With Health And Wellness of Professional Automobile Drivers Of Karachi, Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51985/JBUMDC2019041Abstract
Objective: To identify the health status and well-being of the professional automobile drivers and associated risk factors
that affect their health.
Study Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 professional automobile drivers operating
on local and long routes in Karachi, Pakistan
Methodology: The study was done at various locations in the city of Karachi from September to November 2017. The
subjects were asked for their personal health related complaints and medical illnesses. Further, this research also has the
complimentary purpose to measure anxiety and depression among professional drivers. Anxiety was measured using the
Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 Item Scale (GAD-2) and Patient Health Questionnaire2-Item Depression Module (PHQ-
2) was used to measure, depression. SPSS version 21.0 was used for data entry and its analysis. A written informed consent
about the study was provided to the subjects with questionnaire. This study was approved by the Institutional/Ethical review
board of Karachi Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).
Results: Amongst the 350 participants 48% were long route and 52% were local route automobile drivers. The result
indicate that professional automobile drivers were suffering from backache (56%), Joint pain (36%), Hypertension (44%),
Diabetes Mellitus (21%), Anxiety (87%) and Depression (38%). Tobacco addiction was found in (94%) of total respondents.
Conclusion: Health status of the professional drivers and their well-being was found unsatisfactory. Multiple factors such
as working environment and sociodemographic factors are inevitably linked to their health status and wellbeing.
References
2002., N.R.C., Key Transportation Indicators: Summary of a Workshop. "4 Transportation Indicators of Economic Growth.". Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
USA, F., Logistics And Transportation Spotlight. The Logistics and Transportation Industry in the United States. 2018.
Yang Y. Fan XS. Tian CH. Zhang W. et al., Health status, intention to seek health examination, and participation in health education among taxi drivers in jinan, china. Iran Red Crescent Med J, 2014; 16(4): p. e13355.
Wang, P.C. and L. Delp, Health status, job stress and work-related injury among Los Angeles taxi drivers. Work, 2014; 49(4): 705-12.
Merecz-Kot, D., M. Waszkowska, and A. Wezyk, [Mental health status of drivers--Motor vehicle accidents perpetrators]. Med Pr, 2015; 66(4): 525-38.
Faiz, S., Zehra, S., Qureshi, F., Mumtaz, S., Colour Blindness Among Male Professional Drivers And The Nature Of Difficulties They Experience While Driving. JBUMDC 2019; 9(2):124-127
Greenfield R. Busink E. Wong CP., et al., Truck drivers' perceptions on wearable devices and health promotion: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 2016: 16; 677.
Dube L. Labban A. Moubarac JC, et al., A nutrition/health mindset on commercial Big Data and drivers of food demand in modern and traditional systems. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2014;1331:278-295. doi: 10.1111/ nyas.12595.
Sastry, S., Long Distance Truck Drivers and the Structural Context of Health: A Culture-Centered Investigation of Indian Truckers' Health Narratives. Health Commun, 2016; 31(2): 230-41.
Krishnan P. Hashim N. Rani U. Lung JK et al., Survey on health status of heavy vehicle drivers in Klang valley. Med J Malaysia, 1998; 53(4); 449-51.
Anderson S.W. Aksan N. Dawson JD. Uc EY, et al., Neuropsychological assessment of driving safety risk in older adults with and without neurologic disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neurop-sychology, 2012; 34(9): 895-905.
McManus MC. Cramer RJ. Boshier M., et al., Mental Health and Drivers of Need in Emergent and Non-Emergent Emergency Department (ED) Use: Do Living Location and Non-Emergent Care Sources Matter? Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2018;15(1): pii: E129. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15010129
World Health Organisation, w.h.o, in the top 10 causes of death. 2017.
Health, R.o.R.M.o., Pain Management Guidelines. 2012.
Kroenke K. Spitzer RL. Williams JB, et al., Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence, impairment, comorbidity, and detection. Ann Intern Med, 2007; 146(5): 317-25.
Katon, W., E.H. Lin, and K. Kroenke, The association of depression and anxiety with medical symptom burden in patients with chronic medical illness. Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 2007; 29(2): 147-55.
Kroenke, K. Spitzer RL. Williams JB. et al., The Patient Health Questionnaire Somatic, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptom Scales: a systematic review. Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 2010; 32(4): 345-59.
Kroenke, K., R.L. Spitzer, and J.B. Williams, The Patient Health Questionnaire-2: validity of a two-item depression screener. Med Care, 2003; 41(11): 1284-92.
Hakkanen H, Summala H. Driver sleepiness related problems, health status and prolonged driving among professional heavy vehicle drivers. Transp. Hum. Fact. 2000;2:151–71
Jahangiri M, Karimi A, Slamizad S, Olyaei M, MOOSAVI S, Amiri F. 0BOccupational risk factors in Iranian professional drivers and their impacts on traffic accidents. International Journal of Occupational Hygiene. 2013;5(4):184-90.
Choobineh A, Tabatabaei SH, Mokhtarzadeh A. et al. Musculoskeletal problems among workers of an Iranian rubber factory. J Occup Health 2007; 49; 418-423.
John LM, Flin R, Mearns K. Bus-ting a gut–the strains of an urban bus driver. InInternational Conference of Traffic & Transport Psychology (ICTTP), Nottingham, England 2004 Sep (pp. 1-11).
Chen JC, Chang WR, Chang W, Christiani D. Occupational factors associated with low back pain in urban taxi drivers. Occupational medicine. 2005;55(7):535-40.
Krueger GP. Health and wellness programs for commercial drivers. Transportation Research Board; 2007.
Martin BC, Church TS, Bonnell R, Ben-Joseph R, Borgstadt T. The impact of overweight and obesity on the direct medical costs of truck drivers. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2009;51(2):180-4.
Apostolopoulos, Yorghos , Sönmez, Sevil , Shattell, Mona , Haldeman, Lauren , Strack, Robert and Jones, Victoria(2011) 'Barriers to Truck Drivers' Healthy Eating: Environmental Influences and Health Promotion Strategies', Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 2011;26(2): 122-143
World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2003; WHO: Geneva, Switzerland, 2003
Sarna, L., Bialous, S.A.; Wewers, M.E.; Froelicher, E.S.; Danao, L. Nurses, smoking and the workplace. Res. Nurs. Health 2005; 28: 79-90.
Moylan S, Jacka FN, Pasco JA, Berk M. How cigarette smoking may increase the risk of anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders: a critical review of biological pathways. Brain and behavior. 2013; 3(3):302-26.
Chou, K. L., C. S. Mackenzie, K. Liang, and J. Sareen. 2011. Three - year incidence and predictors of first-onset of DSMIV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders in older adults: results from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. J. Clin. Psychiatry 2011;72:144–155
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Samira Faiz, Farhan Muhammad Qureshi, Sehrish Zahra, Seema Nigah-e- Mumtaz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Journal of Bahria University Medical & Dental College is an open access journal and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. which permits unrestricted non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 
