Study on Health Status of the Workers in the Transport Sector

Edirisinghe B L
MD scholar in Swasthavritta, Post graduate Institute of Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka

Matarage N P
Community Medical Officer –In charge (Maharaga AGA Division)

Kulathunga W M S S K
Senior lecturer, Grade 1, Institute of Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka

DOI – http://doi.org/10.37502/IJSMR.2021.4703

Abstract

A Bus depot is a transport system’s operating base. It provides parking accommodation, servicing and maintenance facilities for buses and administrative function and facilities for the staff. Operators may have their own facilities in very basic level. The principal operational tasks that carried by the depot are allocating buses and crews to each duty, Dispatching buses according to schedule and processing cash paid in by conductors or drivers. The objective of the study was to define health status of the staff of the Bus depot at Maharagama. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in depot staff at Maharagama. All study samples has done the screening tests such as BP, Random Blood Sugar, Body mass index, urine trace identification of Non-communicable diseases and Astavidapriksha. Sample size for the study was 54. The response rate was 100%. Results were calculate by using SPSS 16 version presenting descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and frequencies. The ages of the study participants ranged from 29 to 56 years, with mean age of 42.36 + 6.76 years.  97.5% of them were single, 2.5% of them were female and they were working as office staff. The majority of the respondents were bus drivers representing 58.2 %( 71) of the sample. Nearly one-fourth of the respondents were healthy not any victim of Non-communicable diseases presenting 30% (36). There was a significant differences among the nutritional status and Non- communicable diseases of the respondents’ following the X2 (1, N=120) = 0.422, p = 0.031. It shows that there was a relationship between nutritional status and Non- communicable diseases of the workers at the Bus depot which is p value less than 0.05.

Keywords: Drivers, Health status, Non-communicable diseases.

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