Dados do Trabalho

Título

Sleep quality and ergonomic evaluation of truck drivers’ rest locations.

Introdução

Inadequate work organization is known to be associated with sleep disturbances among long haul truck drivers. Some studies showed strong evidences of daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Other health problems such as high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, systemic arterial hypertension and high body mass index are some examples noticed in the academic recent literature. However, the nature of truck drivers’ work organization often requires rest to be taken in various locations.

Objetivo

To evaluate the drivers’ rest locations and their association with sleep quality.

Métodos

This study was conducted in a large Brazilian transportation company with branches in two different cities. An adapted version of the Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) was used to assess the quality of rest locations, and sleep quality was evaluated by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). This study was approved by the Faculdade de Saúde Pública ethics commitee, protocol number: 2.995.488.

Resultados

31 rest locations were assessed using EWA by the researcher as well as by 60 truck drivers. Rest locations were dorms in truck depots (6.45%) and truck cabin sleeper berths (93.5%). Spearman correlation test indicated positive correlations between the researcher evaluation and the driver regarding the quality of rest place (r=0.6, p=0.0001), illumination (r=0.7, p=0.0001) and noise (r=0.5, p=0.0001). Regarding sleep quality, 50.6% drivers who sleep in dorms and 49.4% who slept in cabin sleeper berths reported poor quality of sleep. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the PSQI score and the average of kilometers travelled (r=0.36, p=0.05), in which the worse sleep quality the higher average of kilometers.

Conclusões

PSQI mean scores and EWA’s subjective variables indicate, respectively, poor quality of sleep and poor evaluations of rest locations, truck depots and truck cabin sleeper berths. Therefore, it is quite relevant to improve the quality of truck depots and truck cabin sleeper berths in order to increase their sleep quality.

Palavras-chave

sleep, truck drivers, sleep quality, sleeper berths.