<\/div>\n
Abstract:<\/h2>\n
Background\/Context: Research shows that work-related stress and fatigue are risk factor for depression. Long haul truck drivers often report irregular work hours, extended work schedules, high mileage exposure, and a lack of control over work-related demands. Furthermore, long haul truck drivers experience frequent social isolation and geographic displacement from their families. Therefore, workers in the truck driving industry may be at a higher risk for depressive symptomology. To date, research literature examining mental health outcomes in long-haul truck drivers remains sparse.<\/p>\n
Aims\/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of depression and its risk factors in long-haul truck drivers situated in western Canada.<\/p>\n
Methods\/Targets: One hundred and seventy long-haul truck drivers were surveyed in Alberta and Saskatchewan (5 truck stops in Alberta; 2 in Saskatchewan) in between August and September 2018. The sample included long-haul truck drivers with a Class 1 license that spend at least one night away from home during load deliveries. Survey items assessed the work demands, health status, substance use, sleep quality, fatigue, work-related stress and depression of long-haul truck drivers. The surveys were entered into a database (SPSS) for statistical analyses, which included descriptives, correlations and a\u00a0 regression to determine predictors of depression in long-haul truck drivers.<\/p>\n
Results\/Activities: The majority of long-haul truckers (95.6%) were male, between the ages of 24 and 89. Most truck drivers identified as Caucasian (81.3%), with the remaining participants identifying as either Asian, native American Indian, black\/African American, East Indian, or Latino\/Hispanic (5.6%, 4.7%, 2.8%, 2.8%, 1.9% respectively). Depression was prevalent in 39% of the long-haul truck drivers surveyed. Depression was significantly associated with poorer self-reported health (r = .237, p <.05), greater marijuana use (Cramer\u2019s V = .258, p <.05), low back pain (Cramer\u2019s V = .316, p < .05), severe job-related stress (Cramer\u2019s V = .283, p < .05), sleep apnea (Cramer\u2019s V = .243, p < .05), non-usage of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device (Cramer\u2019s V = .258, p < .05), poorer sleep quality (Cramer\u2019s V = .430, p < .05) and less sleep duration (r = .13, p < .05). A logistic regression showed that (N = 68, -2 log Likelihood ratio = 73.71; Nagelkerke R2 = .297) sleep quality (p >.05), stress (p >.05) and non-usage of a CPAP machine (p >.05) were all predictive of depression. The odds of having depression were 4.09 times greater for truck drivers who reported broken sleep (CI =1.23, 13.60), 3.25 times greater for truck drivers who reported severe work-related stress (CI = 1.05, 10.09), and were 13.38 times greater for truck drivers who did not use a CPAP machine (CI = 1.12, 156.32).<\/p>\n
Discussion\/Deliverables: Depression is common in long-haul truck drivers. These findings suggest that fatigue and stress are strong risk factors for depression. More importantly, it suggests that drivers with sleep apnea are not using a CPAP device or that many drivers are not being diagnosed with sleep apnea, which contributes directly to depression. Drivers should be assessed for sleep apnea on regular intervals.<\/p>\n
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McLean, Malkin, Madani-Larijani, Crizzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[343,346],"tags":[436,400],"class_list":["post-16989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsp-conference-acpser-calgary-2019","category-research-and-evaluation","tag-mental-health","tag-truck-bus-commercial-vehicles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18001,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989\/revisions\/18001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}