TT_070119_AllPages

4 • July 1-14, 2019 Nation
THETRUCKER.COM
Several factors lead to obvious: driver obesity rate higher
because of dietary options, lack of sleep, irregular schedules
Cliff Abbott
cliffa@thetrucker.com
Truck drivers, on average, are not as
healthy as people in the general population.
That’s just one of the conclusions drawn in a
whitepaper published in April 2019 by Atlas
Injury Prevention Solutions, “Relationship
between Demographics and Wellness in the
Transportation Industry.”
The paper summarizes results from medical
data collected from over 15,000 transportation
industry workers over a five-year
period ending in 2018. The group included
nearly 6,000 drivers. Other workers included
in the survey were office, terminal and shop
employees.
Atlas is a provider of pre-employment
physical function screening, wellness training,
ergonomics training, healthcare support and
other health-related services.
As expected, the data isn’t kind to the driving
population. The numbers show that obesity
rates are higher for drivers than for nondrivers,
citing limited availability of healthy
dietary options, sleep deprivation, irregular
schedules and lack of physical activity as some
of the reasons for problem.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reports that 38% of the U.S. population
meets the criteria for obesity, while the
Atlas study shows 52% of drivers meeting
those criteria.
Obesity is only a part of the problem.
The screening also measured blood pressure,
blood glucose levels, cholesterol and triglyceride
levels, all of which are more likely to be
higher than normal when obesity is present.
These conditions comprise a cluster of conditions
known as Metabolic Syndrome (MetS).
Individuals who display a combination of
three or more of the MetS conditions have an
increased risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes,
all potential killers.
The study showed that drivers are 80%
more likely than nondrivers to have at least
three of the MetS conditions.
Another area where drivers do worse than
their nondriving counterparts is tobacco use.
Despite years of warnings and negative publicity,
drivers are 130% more likely to smoke
than nondrivers, increasing further their risk of
diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
One major issue cited in the study is the
failure of many drivers to fully utilize available
health care options. Many receive only
the treatment necessary to pass a DOT physical
exam, qualifying them to drive a commercial
motor vehicle, while ignoring ongoing health
concerns and overall wellness. According to
the study, potential barriers to receiving regular
medical care include failure to recognize lifelong
issues, difficulty of scheduling and keeping
appointments, and cost.
Some drivers who are in early stages of
MetS don’t experience outward symptoms
of illness or don’t think the symptoms they
do experience are serious enough to warrant
medical attention. The issue with hypertension
and other conditions is that they do not
generally get better on their own. Aging and
Courtesy: PILOT FLYING J
Truckers get hungry while on the road and when it comes time for a break or to fuel up,
they are tempted by the availability of snacks and drinks that can lead to obesity, diabetes
or heart disease.
increased weight tend to make the problems
worse. Drivers who aren’t compliant with prescribed
treatment, including regular medication
and weight loss recommendations, will
almost certainly experience worsening symptoms
as time goes on.
The difficulty in scheduling and making
appointments with a personal physician can be
daunting, especially when the driver’s carrier
does not do a good job getting drivers home
for appointments. Often, the driver’s time at
home doesn’t coincide with the physician’s
business hours and, even when it does, family
business often takes priority. Then, there’s
the ever-increasing cost of health care, and the
usual confusion over what is covered and the
cost of copays and deductibles. A typical copay
for an office visit, for example, is as low
at $20 under some plans and a prescription for
several months of a generic blood-pressure
medication often sells for $10 or less. Even
so, drivers must make the appointment, pick
up the prescription and take the medication as
described, or the health issue gets worse.
Often, drivers who are obese are counseled
to change their diets and exercise more, both
difficult to achieve on the road without a total
commitment.
If improving the driver’s health isn’t a big
enough concern, the possibility of unemployment
should be. Drivers who can’t obtain a
medical card can’t legally drive commercial
vehicles, period. The newest DOT physical
exam guidelines, updated in December 2017,
give physicians much more leeway in granting
medical qualification. Years ago, a driver
with a medical problem might expect to receive
a three-month certification and might
have to simply pass a retest of blood pressure
or blood sugar levels to move up to a one or
two-year certification. These days, doctors
can request further testing and sign off from
the driver’s personal physician before granting
any certification at all, effectively suspending
the driver’s career until requirements
are complied with.
Changing jobs takes on a new meaning,
as well. While much of the text in the Atlas
whitepaper discusses improvement of driver
health, one described priority is to “assist the
person in charge of health and safety to identify
and prioritize higher-risk drivers.” While
that phrase could be interpreted to mean identification
of current drivers who may need
health care intervention, it also applies to
the increasing number of carriers who utilize
pre-employment “physical agility” testing.
While evaluating the potential driver’s ability
to perform the physical functions of the
job such as climbing, lifting, and so on, the
process can also be used to weed out drivers
who may present increased risk of expensive
health treatment or workers compensation expense.
Carriers must exercise extreme caution
when declining employment to applicants to
avoid the risk of violating labor, unemployment
or equal-opportunity laws, but testing is
often structured to collect data that is difficult
to refute.
Whether used to exclude drivers with
undesirable health characteristics or to identify
those that could benefit from health and
wellness training, data collected from drivers
clearly shows that issues exist.
Those interested in obtaining a copy of
the whitepaper or learning more about services
provided by Atlas can find more information
at atlas-ips.com. 8
USPS 972
Volume 32, Number 13
July 1-14, 2019
The Trucker is a semi-monthly, national newspaper for the
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