Risk Factors Associated With Health And Wellness of Professional Automobile Drivers Of Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To identify the health status and well-being of the professional automobile drivers and associated risk factors that affect their health. Study Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 professional automobile drivers operating on local and long routes in Karachi, Pakistan Methodology: The study was done at various locations in the city of Karachi from September to November 2017. The subjects were asked for their personal health related complaints and medical illnesses. Further, this research also has the complimentary purpose to measure anxiety and depression among professional drivers. Anxiety was measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 Item Scale (GAD-2) and Patient Health Questionnaire2-Item Depression Module (PHQ- 2) was used to measure, depression. SPSS version 21.0 was used for data entry and its analysis. A written informed consent about the study was provided to the subjects with questionnaire. This study was approved by the Institutional/Ethical review board of Karachi Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). Results: Amongst the 350 participants 48% were long route and 52% were local route automobile drivers. The result indicate that professional automobile drivers were suffering from backache (56%), Joint pain (36%), Hypertension (44%), Diabetes Mellitus (21%), Anxiety (87%) and Depression (38%). Tobacco addiction was found in (94%) of total respondents. Conclusion: Health status of the professional drivers and their well-being was found unsatisfactory. Multiple factors such as working environment and sociodemographic factors are inevitably linked to their health status and wellbeing