Evaluation of pain, posture, sleeep quality, fatigue, stress and quality of life in truck drivers

In our country, freight and passenger transport is largely used as a result, truck and bus drivers face an extreme workload. As a result of this intensive workload, drivers face a high risk of musculoskeletal problems, stress, fatigue and sleep quality. This study was carried out to investigate the differences between pain, postural changes, sleep quality, fatigue, stress and quality of life in urban and intercity heavy vehicle drivers. A total of 76 drivers 42 of them in cities including 17 (%40) of them are trucks, 25 (%60) of them are buses, 34 of them in intercities including 12 (%35) of them are trucks, 22 (%65) of them are buses participated in the study for at least 5 years, using 5-8 hours per day, without surgery and without spinal problems. The individuals pain assessments with McGill Melzack pain survey and visual analogue scale, postural changes by New York posture method, manual muscle tests and elasticity evaluations, hand grip forces with Baseline Smedley Digital Hand Dynamometer® device, sleep quality by Pitsburgh Sleep Quality Index, daytime sleepiness levels by Epworth sleepiness scale, fatigue severities by Fatigue Severity Scale, stress levels by Perceived Stress Scale and quality of life assestments by Nothingham Health Profile. SPSS v.20.0 program was used for data analysis. The results were considered significant with P-values<0,05. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups when the postural changes, pain complaints and pain severity of the drivers who used urban and urban heavy vehicles were compared (p>0,05). While our drivers had similar sleep quality, intercity drivers had higher daytime sleepiness compared to city drivers (p = 0,034). It was found that intercity drivers felt more severe than urban drivers (p <0,05). It was observed that the perceived stress level of urban drivers was higher (p <0,05) and this was related to cigarette consumption (p = 0,010) and food consumption (p = 0,015). When we look at the quality of life in urban and intercity drivers there is no difference but was found to be worse emotional reaction sub-parameter in city drivers (p <0.05) and to be worse to be worse energy sub-parameter in intercity (p = 0.004) drivers. As a result of our study, it was observed that both urban and intercity heavy vehicle drivers had similar problems with musculoskeletal system, the drivers who were driving by city were exposed to more stress, and the drivers who were by intercity felt more tired. Keywords; truck, bus, quality of life, pain, posture, sleep, fatigue, stress