Violence against metropolitan bus drivers and fare collectors in Brazil

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To analyze the correlation between sociodemographic factors and working conditions of bus workers in a metropolitan area and violence against them.METHODS This cross-sectional study used a nonprobabilistic sample estimated according to the number of workers employed in bus companies located in three cities in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region in 2012 (N = 17,470). Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a digital questionnaire. The factors associated with violence were analyzed in two stages using Poisson regression, according to each level. The magnitude of the association was evaluated using prevalence ratios with robust variance and a statistical significance of 5%, and 95% confidence intervals were obtained.RESULTS The study sample comprised 782 drivers and 691 fare collectors; 45.0% participants reported at least one act of violence in the workplace in the last 12 months, with passengers being predominantly responsible. The age of the bus workers was inversely associated with violence. Chronic diseases, sickness absenteeism, and working conditions were also associated with violence.CONCLUSIONS The findings on the correlation between violence and working conditions are essential for implementing prevention strategies by transportation service managers.

Lifestyle of public transport bus drivers and fare collectors

“…Moreover, over half of the participants did not comply with the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week for health promotion (7) . Other studies have reported high percentages of workers who did not practice physical activity, with mean values ranging from 25 to 66% (5)(6)(7)13,24) , which corroborates our findings (bus drivers -59.09%; fare collectors -53.33%). Regardless of the job, the participants exhibited levels of physical inactivity higher than the value observed for the male Brazilian population (35 to 40% are physically inactive) (25) .…”

“…Men represented almost the entirety of the workers on the jobs analyzed in this study. This finding is similar to previous studies focused on these professions (5,8,11,12) and it seems to be related to the danger that surrounds the job considering the number of robberies and road traffic accidents (6) . In addition, the mean age of bus drivers was higher than that of fare collectors, probably due the hierarchy of jobs in the workplace and to the fact that in order to get a bus driving license (license D) in Brazil, the applicant must be 21 years of age or older and have a minimum of two years of license B (vehicles that do not exceed 8 seats) or one year of license C (cargo vehicles) (7,11) .…”

“…The prevalence of obesity among public transport workers has been high in both international (32% on average) and national studies (24% on average) (5) . This may be related to exposure to high levels of psychological stress (6)(7)(8) . Stressful working conditions combined with several hours working in a sitting position and other characteristics related to the work drivers and bus collectors perform have moved them into a risk group for health problems (9,10) .…”

“…Being a bus driver requires constant attention and driving skills: precision, self-control, fast reaction time and ability to interpret the surrounding environment in order to avoid accidents (7) . At the same time, the function of the onboard fare collector is to assist the bus driver in his working day (6) . Prolonged exposure to stress conditions causes them to experience musculoskeletal disorders and occupational diseases (11,12) .…”

“…Prolonged exposure to stress conditions causes them to experience musculoskeletal disorders and occupational diseases (11,12) . In this context, there are several studies that address different perspectives such as: violence against drivers (6) , health and work conditions (7,8) , cardiovascular risk taking into account race (10) or workday (13) , prevalence of musculoskeletal pain (11) , food and anthropometric profile (14) , physiological aspects such as heart rate variability (15) , risk associated with work-related injuries (16) , metabolic and urinary profile (17) or stress (18) .…”