Affiliations: Department of Occupational Health, Hospital of
Southern Jutland, Denmark | Research Unit of Maritime Medicine at University of
Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark | Department of Occupational Medicine, Aarhus University
Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark | Danish Defense, Occupational Health Center South,
Fredericia, Denmark | National Institute of Occupational Health, Copenhagen,
Denmark | School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology,
University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Søren Dahl, Department of
Occupational Health, Hospital of Southern Jutland, Denmark, Simmer-\linebreak
stedvej 1-3, DK-6100 Haderslev. Tel.: +45 7353 0222; Fax: +45 7452 0373;
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Personal lifestyle and working conditions are closely linked for
long haul truck drivers. We compare lifestyle related diseases in long haul
drivers with other drivers of goods and the working population at large.
Standardized hospital treatment ratios (SHR) for lifestyle related diseases
were compared for long haul truck drivers and other truck drivers to the
working population at large. The follow up group comprised of 2,175 long haul
drivers and 15,060 other truck drivers. An increased risk was found for
lifestyle related diseases among truck drivers except for alcohol related
diseases. We identified a strong association between hospital treatment for
obesity and working as a driver and an association between diabetes and working
as a driver. No major differences in lifestyle related diseases were found in
long haul drivers compared to other truck drivers with the exception of a
significant lower risk for alcohol-related diseases and a possibly higher risk
for lung cancer in long haul drivers. It is concluded that diseases related to
excess caloric intake or lack of exercise may be a problem for truck drivers.
This risk is preventable and of importance both in occupational medicine as in
public health.
Keywords: Lifestyle related diseases, long haul truck driver, diabetes, obesity, chronic ischaemic heart disease, alcohol related diseases, lung cancer
