Citation

Koh D, Ong CN, Phoon WO. J. Traffic Med. 1990; 18(2): 61-67.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A study was conducted on the working conditions and health status of 256 taxi drivers. 122 of these drivers were accident free for the preceeding 15 months, while the remaining 134 drivers had 3 or more reported accidents within that same period. No differences in age, ethnic group, education level, hours of work or mileage travelled were found between the 2 groups of drivers. The drivers studied worked an average of 65.5 hours and travelled 1559 kilometres per week. The prevalence of raised blood pressure readings (26.9%) and glucosuria (14.8%) was 1.6 and 3.1 times higher than that of the comparable national figures. A significantly higher prevalence of undiagnosed high blood pressure was noted among the accident repeater drivers. 21.1% of the drivers studied had poor visual acuity, and this was found to be correlated with the age of the driver. Common symptoms among the taxi drivers were musculoskeletal complaints (41.8%); especially low backache (of which 29.3% of drivers complained) and cervicobrachial ache; and sleeplessness (11.3%).(A)

Language: en

Keywords

Driver; Drivers; Health; Jobs; Singapore; Occupation; Taxi; Taxicabs