Request for Question Clarification by
crabcakes-ga
on
06 Jun 2006 11:20 PDT
Hello Dekal,
I was unable to find an exact number of truck driver deaths due to
heart disease - probably due the 100% turnover rate of employed truck
drivers. Here is what Iw as able to find. Please let me know if this
is satisfactory:
?Erwin knows that 700 truckers die in road accidents every year, and
that they're 30 percent more likely than the national average to die
of heart disease. "Every year PTL finds several drivers dead in their
trucks," he says. "A few years back I was talking on the phone to a
guy who had a heart attack right in the middle of our conversation.
They have a horrible lifestyle. They don't get any exercise, they sit
in that seat all day long, and most of them smoke and eat truck-stop
food that's usually greasy and high in carbohydrates."
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-05-10/news/feature.html
?Heart disease in truckers, for example, is 30% above the national
average, Kempa told attendees at the Distribution & LTL Carriers
Association's annual meeting here last month.?
http://ttnews.com/lmt/Apr06/health.asp
Heart Disease deaths by year: Heart disease: 696,947
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
?We found that truck rivers were at increased risk for the development
of first myocardial infarction (age-adjusted odds ratio 2.36; 95% CI
1.67-3.35). After adjustment for smoking, hypertension, obesity,
stress the odds ratio remained stable (2.26; 95% CI 1.58-3.24) as
compared to other employed men. The logistic regression analysis
within the subpopulation of truck drivers showed that the odds ratio
for arterial hypertension was 3.20, for smoking--2.48. The effect of
obesity and stress decreased to insignificant level. CONCLUSIONS:
Truck drivers are at increased risk for the development of first
myocardial infarction. Arterial hypertension and smoking are
significant risk factors of myocardial infarction for truck drivers.?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15106466&dopt=Abstract
?717 truck drivers were killed on the job in 1997, making truck
driving one of the most dangerous occupations in the country, a
dramatic 16 percent increase in truck occupant fatalities!?
http://www.luhs.org/depts/injprev/Transprt/tran1-11.htm
Sleep apnea contributes to heart disease and high blood pressure too.
?In one study 28.1% of truck drivers were found to have sleep apnea
(Pack, U Penn)
Truck drivers with sleep apnea may be at 6 times a greater risk of
crashing than those without apnea (Santos, Spain)?
http://www.sleeptosaveyourlife.com/facts.php
?The on-the-road lifestyle, in fact, is the crux of many a trucker's
health problems, according to Scott Madar of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters' (IBT) health and safety department in
Washington D.C. "Drivers have few opportunities for exercise and
limited choices for meals. If your only option is fast food and
there's no chance for exercise, you're on the fast track for obesity,
heart-disease, and other ailments."
Truckers suffer from poorly designed workspaces (their cabs), exposure
to hazardous chemicals, and a work atmosphere laden with diesel fumes.
More serious, among all occupations, truckers have the highest
incidence of fatal injuries.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 2.86
million commercial truckers in the U.S. -- ranging from big-rig
operators hauling lumber and fuel to small step-van drivers delivering
newspapers and baked goods. In 1998, 412,000 large trucks -- those
weighing more than 10,000 pounds -- were involved in traffic accidents
on U.S. highways. More than 600 drivers were killed, and 4,000
suffered disabling injuries in road accidents.?
http://www.thecybertruckstop.com/HealthFitness/hf1.html
OR stands for odds ratrion ?The crude OR among bus drivers was 2.14
(95% confidence interval = 1.34-3.41), among taxi drivers 1.88
(1.19-2.98) and among truck drivers 1.66 (1.22-2.26). Adjustment for
potential confounders gave lower ORs: 1.49 (0.90-2.45), 1.34
(0.82-2.19) and 1.10 (0.79-1.53), respectively. Additional adjustment
for job strain lowered the ORs only slightly. An exposure-response
pattern (by duration of work) was found for bus and taxi drivers.?
?The high risk among bus and taxi drivers was partly explained by
unfavorable life-style factors and social factors. The work
environment may contribute to their increased risk. Among truck
drivers, individual risk factors seemed to explain most of the
elevated risk.?
http://www.epidem.com/pt/re/epidemiology/abstract.00001648-200305000-00014.htm;jsessionid=GFqJqr2nnFLcbvbZps8Ly1wNTNq6Hvj8gnh7bzp2pLKMk2B77MLN!1318151080!-949856144!8091!-1
?During 1977?84 the MI incidence was higher in all three driver groups
than among other manual workers. There was a decline in MI incidence
among drivers as well as in the general population during the study
period. The decline was greater among drivers than among other manual
workers. During 1985?96 the relative risk remained increased compared
to other manual workers among taxi and lorry drivers, but not among
bus drivers.?
http://oem.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/61/12/987
?The difference in blood lipids and blood pressure increased with age.
It is suggested that the higher CHD-risk in the driver group is
associated with two factors: (1) greater psychic pressure in the
working situation; (2) the selection of more type-A persons to driver
occupations. A probable, but not commonly accepted theory, is that
these psychosocial indicators may influence the traditional risk
factors in a harmful way.?
http://www.springerlink.com/(hbs02v45csnihf55cx43in45)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,6,8;journal,187,408;linkingpublicationresults,1:101165,1
?Laborers, truck drivers, and taxi drivers generate among the highest
death rates of all occupations.?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/workplace/etc/cost.html
?The highest significantly elevated proportionate heart disease (IHD,
acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and other forms of heart disease)
and lung cancer mortality was found for White and Black male long haul
truck drivers age 15-54. Mortality was not significantly elevated for
short haul truck drivers of either race or gender, nor for truck
drivers who died after age 65, except for lung cancer among White
males. An indirect adjustment suggested that smoking could explain the
excess IHD mortality, but no direct data for smoking or the other
known risk factors for heart disease were available and occupational
exposures were not measured. CONCLUSIONS: The highest significant
excess proportionate mortality for lung cancer, IHD and AMI was found
for long haul truck drivers who were under age 55 at death. A cohort
or longitudinal study of heart disease among long haul truck drivers,
that obtains data for occupational exposures as well as lifestyle risk
factors, could help explain inconsistencies between the findings of
this and previous studies.?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15662648&dopt=Abstract
?"type-A coronary-prone behaviour" was 30% higher in the driver group
than in the control group. The difference in blood lipids and blood
pressure increased with age. It is suggested that the higher CHD-risk
in the driver group is associated with two factors: (1) greater
psychic pressure in the working situation; (2) the selection of more
type-A persons to driver occupations. A probable, but not commonly
accepted theory, is that these psychosocial indicators may influence
the traditional risk factors in a harmful way.?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6642695&dopt=Abstract
?What then are the factors that contribute to the development of
full-blown heart disease among professional drivers? We addressed that
question by comparing professional drivers with hypertension to
thirteen drivers who had suffered a heart attack or other major
manifestation of coronary heart disease. They were all under the age
of 53. One significant difference was in the number of who had smoked
cigarettes; all thirteen drivers with heart disease had done so. They
also had a significantly stronger family history of heart disease, and
more pronounced Type A behavior. When performing the traffic accident
avoidance task, they showed the largest diastolic blood pressure
reaction. During exposure to headlight glare, the drivers with heart
disease showed the greatest central arousal (EEG) and the longest
lasting constriction of finger blood vessels (Belkic 1996, Emdad
1997).?
?In 1998 we published a review of the literature concerning heart
disease risk among professional drivers (Belkic 1998), compiling
earlier reviews of Winkleby et al. [1988], Belkic, et al [1994], and
van Amelsvoort [1995]. We found that most of the studies (thirty-four
out of forty) showed professional drivers to have an increased risk of
hypertension and cardiovascular disease compared to referents from the
working or general population. We concluded that such a consistent and
large body of data concerning cardiac risk does not appear to exist
for any other specific occupational group. It was striking that heart
disease often occurred prematurely, such that professional drivers are
over-represented among series of young patients who had suffered a
heart attack. In a paper by Villarem et al. [1982] of thirty-eight
consecutive heart attack patients under the age of 30, 20% were
long-route truck drivers. Riecanský et al. [1988] reported that 40% of
their series of heart attack patients younger than age forty were
professional drivers.?
?As to truck drivers, there are fewer studies, and these are not as
consistent as for urban transit operators. An analysis of disease
rates among U.S. workers shows that truck drivers have among the
highest rates of heart attack (Leigh 1998). A study by Dr. Per
Gustavsson and colleagues (1996) showed that after considering age,
smoking and obesity that long distance-urban (but not the other three)
categories of male truck drivers had a significantly increased risk of
heart attack, compared to other working men in Sweden. There are also
two studies (Luepker 1978 and Balarajan 1988) in which comparisons
were made with the general population, in which lower rates of
circulatory disease death were found among truck drivers. Dr. van
Amelsvoort reporting from the "International Workshop on the
Epidemiology of Coronary Heart Disease among European Truck Drivers",
points out that in these two studies a strong healthy worker effect
was likely. In the latter study only a one time job description was
assessed (in 1939) while medical follow-up was made from 1950 to 1984.
In the former only unionized truck drivers were included.?
http://www.workhealth.org/OSI%20Index/OSI%20Questions%20and%20Answers.html
?Life expectancy varies substantially with occupation. Post office
employees, university professors, and workers in clothing
manufacturing and in communications industries live 1-2 years longer
than average, and miners, policemen, firemen, truck drivers, and
fishermen die 2-3 years younger than average. But the most dangerous
job is no job at all - unemployment. A 1% increase in national
unemployment results in 37,000 deaths per year (plus 4200 admissions
to mental hospitals and 3300 admissions to prisons).?
http://www.sepp.org/NewSEPP/How_To_Rank_Risks.htm
?For commercial drivers, eg, truck drivers, bus drivers, or delivery
people who spend a much greater proportion of their time driving or
who tend to drive much heavier vehicles, the risk of causing harm to
other road users as a consequence of syncope or presyncope in
association with ICD discharge is substantially increased. It is
recommended that all commercial driving be prohibited permanently
after ICD implantation.?
http://www.hrsonline.org/swPositionStatementFiles/ps99318586.asp
Regards, Crabcakes
