Transport and health expertise can help meet the World Health Organization's goals for global climate change and noncommunicable disease prevention

Abstract

in October, we were reminded that the science of physical activity and health began with Morris's study of bus drivers and bus conductors (Morris & Raffles, 1954). Both incidence of and mortality from ischaemic heart disease were lower among conductors than drivers, two groups of men from similar demographic and socio-economic groups and with the same working environment -at first glance. Morris hypothesised that this difference in heart disease was due to a beneficial effect of physical activity: drivers were sedentary while conductors walked and climbed stairs all day (as they worked on double-decker buses, collecting fares). Physical inactivity is not the only hazard for professional drivers: Senthanar and colleagues (2018, this issue) examining musculoskeletal problems among truck drivers find a high proportion of modifiable factors associated with the drivers' high prevalence of musculoskeletal problems.