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Sleep, mental health, and access to health care of women truck drivers.



Details

  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Background: The numbers of women in trucking are growing steadily, yet because they represent a minority group, little is known about their health issues. Most studies of truck drivers have focused on the mental and physical health, sleep, and health care access of male truck drivers. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize chronic stress, sleep, and mental health service and overall access to care among women truck drivers. Methodology: Twenty-five female truck drivers were a subsample of participants from a larger parent study of truck drivers. After approval from the institutional review board, participants completed a 59-item Qualtrics survey; data were transferred from Qualtrics to SPSS v. 24 for analysis. Results: No acute sleepiness or excess daytime sleepiness was observed, but participants only slept 6 hr per night, and all experienced poor sleep quality. Although 28% of participants met or exceeded the threshold score for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), only 8% sought care for feelings of upset or distress. Also, 80% of the women had health insurance, yet there were those who did not seek care because of job-related conflicts. Conclusion/Implications: Participants were sleep deprived and experienced poor-quality sleep. Mental health and other health services utilization was low. Implications for practice include consideration of telehealth services to improve health care access and screening and referral as needed to mental health care providers by Department of Transportation medical examiners. Future research should include younger women truck drivers to determine the potential contribution of perimenopause/menopause to some of the health issues experienced by this group of workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    2327-6886
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Grant
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Pages in Document:
    38-45
  • Volume:
    36
  • Issue:
    1
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20068901
  • Citation:
    J Am Assoc Nurse Pract 2024 Jan; 36(1):38-45
  • Contact Point Address:
    Karen Heaton, PhD, Occupational Health Nursing, Deep South Center for Occupational Health and Safety, School of Nursing, Adult/Acute Health, Chronic Care and Foundations, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
  • Email:
    kharnp@uab.edu
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2024
  • Performing Organization:
    University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Peer Reviewed:
    True
  • Start Date:
    20050701
  • Source Full Name:
    Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners
  • End Date:
    20270630
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 168.02 KB ]
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