Does long-term length of stay on board affect the repatriation rates of seafarers?

Abstract

Background: The length of seafarers' contract has undergone scrutiny regarding the health, welfare, and fatigue of the crew. This study investigates whether a stay of more than 200 days can increase the risk of medical repatriation among Filipino seafarers. Materials and methods: We reviewed the number of medical repatriations from January 2014 to December 2016, specifically those who were repatriated after more than 200 days on board. We used WHO ICD-10 classification to categorise diseases and medical events that cause the repatriation, and classified them under "Injury" or "Illness" as defined by the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification Manual. We also separated those who worked on cargo vessels as well as those who worked on passenger ships. We requested for the total number of seafarers who worked longer than 200 days on board. After calculating a repatriation rate for this specific group of long-term workers, we then compared this with a previous study. Chi-square analysis and regression analysis were applied to analyse the data comparing the passenger versus cargo ships repatriation rates. Results: There were a total of 840 cases of long-term repatriations in this study for the 3 year period. The total number of crew who had stayed for more than 200 days was 51,830. The different causes of repatriation are presented. Repatriation rates are also shown and a study of the regular stay and long term contracts are also compared. Conclusions: There are various disease entities significantly higher in the long term work group. We offer some possible explanations for some of these differences in repatriation rates. This data could be useful in planning of schedules, work hours and contracts as well as the prevention of disease in seafarers.

COVID-19 and seafarers’ rights to shore leave, repatriation and medical assistance: a pilot study

“…Repatriation consequent to an injury or illness has been studied from the perspective of risk [30]. Long tenure on board enhances the risk of medical repatriation, and a study of Filipino seafarers investigated whether 200 days may be the upper limit [31].…”

Mental health of Filipino seafarers and its implications for seafarers’ education

“…Lastly, 1 study analysed repatriation documents of 51,850 Filipinos who have worked for more than 200 days on board from January 2014 to December 2016. They found less than 1% were repatriated due to mental ill-health [27].…”

How to calculate incidence rates from proportionate data

“…This type of methodological problem was seen in a study about repatriations of seafarers from the sea. The numbers of repatriations are taken from Figure 3 in the article [4]. There is no information about the age structure among the Filipino seafarers, only the number of seafarers and the number of repatriations.…”

“…Use of only proportionate rates for age groups was lately also seen in a study among Finnish fishermen [12]. The lack of the age distribution of the population is men- length of stay on board and the repatriation rates of seafarers were estimated by the absolute numbers of repatriations related to 150 and 250 days stay on average on board [4]. The relationship between the incidence rate-ratio and the days on board was very different from the relationship between the absolute number of repatriations and days spent on board (Fig.…”