Occupational health disparities among U.S. long-haul truck drivers: the influence of work organization and sleep on cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk

Abstract

ObjectiveThe organization of work has undergone vast transformations over the past four decades in the United States and has had profound impacts on worker health and wellbeing. The profession of commercial truck driving is one of the best examples. Particularly for long-haul truck drivers, changes in work organization have led to disproportionately poor physiological, psychological, and sleep health outcomes.MethodsThe present study examined disparities in cardiometabolic disease risk among long-haul truck drivers and the general population, and the influence of work organization and sleep in generating these outcomes. Researchers collected survey data from 260 drivers, and blood assay samples from 115 of those drivers, at a large highway truck stop in North Carolina. Comparisons were made for cardiovascular and metabolic risk against the 2011–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). In addition, logistic regression was used to explore predictive relationships between work organization and sleep and risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease.ResultsThere were statistically significant mean differences between the long-haul truck driver sample and the NHANES sample for both cardiovascular (3.71 vs. 3.10; p <0.001) and metabolic (4.31 vs. 3.09; p <0.001) disease risk. The truck driver sample was less physically active and had lower HDL cholesterol along with greater levels of smoking, BMI, and metabolic syndrome diagnosis. More years of driving experience and poor sleep quality were statistically significant predictors for both cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk.ConclusionsStudy findings implicate elements of the occupational milieu experienced by long-haul truck drivers that induce disproportionate cardiometabolic disease risk. Sleep quality, largely compromised by poor work conditions and workplace environments, plays a significant role in increased risks for cardiometabolic disease. There is an urgent need for longitudinal studies of this critical occupational sector as well as intervention research centered on policy and systems level change.

Job stress and emotional exhaustion at work in Spanish workers: Does unhealthy work affect the decision to drive?

“…These patterns could eventually be elicited more easily if the individual was exposed to such stimuli with high frequency or regularity [58]. The occupational context, more specifically, can be described as an ideal scenario for the prevention and training of everything that concerns coping with stress, emotional exhaustion at work and other relevant factors that may influence outcomes in driving safety, such as fatigue and adequate recovery of workers [31,59]. This is due to two facts: first, work is one of the vital scenarios in which stress is most prevalent, and second, it is a potential source of good interventions that may result in lower rates of occupational diseases, work fatigue, and accidents, both inside and outside of the workplace [56,60].…”

“…Regarding the existing evidence in the working population, EEW has already been related to different adverse health consequences such as: depressive and anxious disorders [26,27], systematic headaches [28], a greater Odds Ratio (OR) for developing hypertension [29] gastrointestinal diseases [30], musculoskeletal disorders [28], acute/chronic fatigue [31,32], numerous sleep problems [33][34][35], and a lower performance at work, in comparison to workforce groups that, on the other hand, have not reported burnout symptoms [36,37]. Empirically, some studies have found that burnout-related issues, such as EEW, may explain higher rates of job absenteeism and consistent turnover rates of workers [6,38,39], including the case of professional drivers, whose stressful work environment and role conflicts seem to be closely related to the appearance and prevalence of burnout-related symptomatology and other negative occupational and health outcomes [40,41].…”

The Impact of Work Organization, Job Stress, and Sleep on the Health Behaviors and Outcomes of U.S. Long-Haul Truck Drivers

“…The demographic makeup of the truck driver sample has been reported in our previous published studies Hege et al, 2016;Hege et al, 2017;Hege, Lemke, Apostolopoulos, & Sönmez, 2018;. The descriptive characteristics, in relation to work organization characteristics, of the driver sample are presented in Table 1.…”

Closing the gap: data-based decisions in food, nutrition and health systems: proceedings of the Fifth International Summit on Medical and Public Health Nutrition Education and Research

“…10 As an example, data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study showed that truck drivers have lower levels of physical activity, increased body mass index, lower HDL cholesterol, increased cardiovascular disease and more mental health challenges. 24 These data can be used to support clinical and public health measures to support these higher risk population. 25 Teaching strategies for nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics To keep up with research advancement, different strategies within medical nutrition education need to be considered, such as the inclusion of nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics.…”