US study: truckies top overweight workers

Recent research in the US state of Washington indicates there's a higher prevalence of obesity in truck drivers than in any other form of employment

An American research paper has found that truck drivers have the highest rate of obesity of any job category in Washington State, where the investigation was carried out.

The paper, compiled primarily by Dr David Bonauto and recently published by America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, found that 38.6 per cent of truck drivers were obese, with a Body Mass Index of 30 or more.

That put truck drivers just ahead of people who work in ‘transportation and material moving’ (37.9 per cent), ‘protective services’ (33.3 per cent), ‘cleaning and building services’ (29.5 per cent), ‘health services’ (28.8 per cent), and ‘mechanics and repairers’ (28.9 per cent).

At the bottom end of the list were jobs including ‘teacher, post-secondary’ (17.6 per cent), ‘natural and social scientists’ (17.3 per cent), and ‘health diagnosing occupations’ (11.6 per cent).

A total of 545 respondents in the study listed themselves as ‘truck drivers’.

Truck drivers were also identified as having the highest proportion of smokers (34.1 per cent), ahead of ‘transportation and material moving’ (27.7 per cent) and ‘precision production and plant operators’ (25.6 per cent).

Across all the occupations, the average rate of obesity was 24.6 per cent and the average rate of smoking was 17.2 per cent.

Just 15.8 per cent of truck drivers were found to be consuming an adequate daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The multi-year study looked at data taken from annual surveys taken on odd years between 2003 and 2009, the information gleaned from nearly 38,000 participants who listed themselves as having valid occupational codes, were aged between 18 and 64, and who weren’t employed by the US military.

The study concludes that government and employers would be well served to introduce occupation-specific health policies and programs.

“…this study calls for promoting the systematic, ongoing collection of data on obesity and health-related behaviours by occupation,” the report states.

“Characterising obesity prevalence by occupation may influence key stakeholders to develop workplace wellness programs, which help identify unique societal and occupational factors for effective intervention to modify obesity risk factors.”

Click here to view the full report.

US study: truckies top overweight workers

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