Is There Any Relationship between Mental Health and Driving Behavior of Taxi Drivers in Kerman?

Somayeh Noori Hekmat,Atousa Poursheikhali,Saeed Norouzi,Reza Dehnavieh,Ebrahim Bameh

doi:10.5539/gjhs.v9n2p294

Abstract

<p>Traffic accidents are the main reason of disability and the second reason of mortality in Iran. Therefore finding out the effective factors is vital. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between mental health and taxi drivers’ behavior in Kerman. This is a cross-sectional descriptive research in which Manchester driving behavior questionnaire (MDBQ) and “general health questionnaire (GHQ)” were used. The questionnaires were distributed between 186 taxi drivers during February and March 2015. Our study was conducted in the province of Kerman in the east south of Iran. We used descriptive methods as well as t-tests, chi-square tests, and logit models for data analysis. The data analysis showed that the driving behavior of Kermanian taxi drivers is good (0.481±4.13) and the mental health situation of them is partly good (0.662±3.61). The Pearson’s correlation test showed overall driving behavior score is correlated positively with mental health score (r=0.83, P=0.000). Also there were positive correlations between all driving behavior dimensions and mental health dimensions at a level of significance of 0.005. The result of Chi-Square Test showed that there the younger drivers and who had less driving experience had higher mental health score. Single drivers and who had less education, which had faced with financial loss in their previous accidents, which had lose their driving license for a while, higher driving behavior score compared to the others (P&lt;0.05). By some improvement actions in driver’s mental health, we can effect on their behavior. And by proper driving behaviors, we can avoid from some mortalities, disabilities and heavy costs on society.</p>

Highlights

Traffic accidents result in a huge amount of financial and psychological costs and pains for families in addition to the death of healthy human and is the leading cause of disability all around the world (WHO report, 2011; Vafaee-Najar et al, 2010)
The data collection was accomplished through standard questionnaires called “Manchester driving behavior questionnaire (MDBQ)” to study attitudinal situation of taxi drivers and “general health questionnaire (GHQ)” (Abdoli et al, 2015; Yousofi, Ghasemi, &Taghavi, 2012) to detect possible psychiatric disorders
Drivers who had less driving experience had on the average 2.17 higher mental health score as compared to who had more than 10 years driving experience (P=0.04)

Summary

Introduction

Traffic accidents result in a huge amount of financial and psychological costs and pains for families in addition to the death of healthy human and is the leading cause of disability all around the world (WHO report, 2011; Vafaee-Najar et al, 2010). The WHO’s statistics in 2011 indicate that traffic accidents kill 1.3milion people each year and 90 percent of these mortalities happen in low-income and middle-income countries (CDC, 2008). In Iran, traffic accidents are the main reason of mortality. According to UNICEF’s report, 28000 people have lost their lives during traffic accidents in 2006 in Iran which compared with 2000 (17000 persons) had a significant increase. About 2.5 percent of all traffic accidents in the world happen in Iran. That means Iran’s accident rate is 20 times higher than anywhere else in the world (Toroyan, 2009)

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