Mental health survey of truck drivers

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The health management of truck drivers has long been considered extremely important from the perspective of prevention of diseases and traffic accidents. Today, truck drivers may have various underlying health problems, including psychological burden caused by deregulation with the enforcement of the Trucking Business Act, rising fuel costs, and even economic stagnation. In this study, we investigated the mental health of individuals working in transportation and logistics sectors, which ensures the secure supply and sound development of safe and high-quality transportation services. METHODS: To ascertain the mental health status in this population, we used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ30), an assessment of mental health and currently the general health questionnaire most widely used by the department of psychosomatic medicine and other clinical departments. RESULTS: Although the mean GHQ30 score of all the subjects in this study was below the cutoff point of 6-7, which separates individuals with mental health problems from those who without 30% of the subjects were classified as having mental health problems, revealing the need for routine screening of the mental health status and severity of symptoms of truck drivers. CONCLUSIONS: There is growing recognition of the importance of establishing mental healthcare services in the workplace because of the sharply increasing number of applications for workers' compensation due to suicides from overwork. In this study, 16.7% of truck drivers expressed suicidal thoughts, indicating that it is necessary to conduct follow-up surveys of the mental conditions of truck drivers in order to put in place appropriate mental health measures.