Health survey of U.S. long-haul truck drivers: Work environment, physical health, and healthcare access

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: While trucking in industrialized nations is linked with driver health afflictions, the role of trucking in U.S. truckers' health remains largely unknown. This paper sheds light on links between the trucking work environment and drivers' physical health. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 316 truckers were enrolled in the Healthy Trucker Survey. Questions included work history, physical and mental health, and healthcare access. PASW 18 was used to examine patterns among factors. PARTICIPANTS: 316 truckers participated. RESULTS: Respondents were mainly full-time, long-haul drivers with over 5 years of experience, and who spent over 17 days on the road per month. While almost 75% described their health as good, 83.4% were overweight/obese, 57.9% had sleeping disturbances, 56.3% fatigue, 42.3% musculoskeletal disorders, and about 40% cardiovascular disease concerns. About 33% had no health insurance, 70% had no regular healthcare visits, 24.4% could not afford insurance, and 42.1% took over-the-counter drugs when sick, while 20.1% waited to reach home for medical care. Exercise facilities were unavailable in over 70% of trucking worksites and 70% of drivers did not exercise regularly. CONCLUSIONS: The trucking occupation places drivers at high risk for poor health outcomes. Prospective studies are needed to delve into how continued exposure to trucking influences the progression of disease burden.

Obesity indices are predictive of elevated C‐reactive protein in long‐haul truck drivers

“…Obesity rates have become endemic to almost all parts of the world, but data from previous studies [Moreno et al, ; Martin et al, ; Saberi et al, ; Apostolopoulos et al, ; Sangaleti et al, ; Sieber et al, ; Rosso et al, ] and the current investigation suggest that long‐haul truck drivers are significantly more obese than the general population. Abdominal obesity was highly prevalent in our group of drivers.…”

“…This sets up a hormonal milieu that may alter appetite‐related input to the hypothalamus, resulting in altered energy balance [Marqueze et al, ], and; ultimately, body weight and other cardiovascular risk factors will be affected. Making matters worse, many long‐haul drivers lack basic health insurance coverage, and work hours make it difficult to seek medical care [Apostolopoulos et al, ]. Despite these dramatic health disparities, efforts to mitigate the multiple deleterious impacts on driver health endemic to the long‐haul trucking profession, particularly those associated with working conditions of drivers, have been sporadic and piecemeal [Lemke and Apostolopoulos, ].…”

Sleep, Dietary, and Exercise Behavioral Clusters Among Truck Drivers With Obesity

“…Only 6.5-23.8% of drivers report eating 5 or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables 16, 19 with daily serving estimates ranging from 1.7 to 2.8 19, 20 . In two studies 70-90% of drivers reported not regularly engaging in exercise 15, 21 . In one study 27.1% of drivers reported zero days per week with 30 minutes of moderate exercise; 3 in another, the median weekly minutes of physical activity was zero 18 .…”

Health risk appraisals in Swedish occupational health services

“…One of the common services consists of health risk appraisals (HRAs) for the purpose of detecting early signs of illness and adverse lifestyle factors. Other purposes of HRAs are pre-employment surveillance [3], screening for the occurrence of stress in a company [4] or assessing the general health status in a special occupation [5]. HRAs are commonly performed as part of general health care as well, but OHS can also include working conditions in the assessment, thus adding an important dimension to health promotion in an occupational setting.…”