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

Objective: To identify the health status and well-being of the professional automobile drivers and associated risk factorsthat affect their health.Study Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 professional automobile drivers operatingon local and long routes in Karachi, PakistanMethodology: The study was done at various locations in the city of Karachi from September to November 2017. Thesubjects were asked for their personal health related complaints and medical illnesses. Further, this research also has thecomplimentary purpose to measure anxiety and depression among professional drivers. Anxiety was measured using theGeneralized 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 consentabout the study was provided to the subjects with questionnaire. This study was approved by the Institutional/Ethical reviewboard of Karachi Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).Results: Amongst the 350 participants 48% were long route and 52% were local route automobile drivers. The resultindicate 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 suchas working environment and sociodemographic factors are inevitably linked to their health status and wellbeing.