Discrimination as a social determinant of stress and health among New York City taxi drivers

Abstract

Discrimination is associated with poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Taxi drivers have a higher risk of exposure to discrimination and higher rates of chronic conditions. A cross-sectional needs assessment was conducted with a multilingual group of 535 male taxi drivers in New York City. Drivers reporting higher discrimination were more likely to have higher perceived stress and were more likely to have anxiety/depression and chronic pain, adjusting for confounders. Workplace-based interventions designed to help drivers cope with discrimination, stress, and chronic health conditions, interventions to educate the taxi-riding public, and greater attention to these issues from administrative agencies are warranted.

Associations between daily‐on‐the job hassles with perceived mental exertion and depression symptoms in taxi drivers

“…Personal stressful life events, including change of health in a family member, personal injury/illness and changes in financial state, were associated with mental exertion; changes in financial state was associated with depression symptoms in our study. This is consistent with the other taxi drivers studies which found higher stress associated with lower incomes . Rowland et al also found that family difficulties and marital stress including divorce and financial matters such as not having enough income contributed to drivers’ stress…”

“…Furthermore, in our study, discrimination/unfair treatment at work was not significantly associated with perceived mental exertion and depression symptoms. While, perceived discrimination at work was associated with higher stress scores in Australian and New York taxi driver studies . Personal stressful life events, including change of health in a family member, personal injury/illness and changes in financial state, were associated with mental exertion; changes in financial state was associated with depression symptoms in our study.…”

“…The results of this study showed a high prevalence of a depression diagnosis (per self‐report) and depression symptoms (per CESD) among the participants of this study, when compared to the national United States prevalence of depression symptoms in adult men (5.5%), and in New York City taxi drivers (7.8%) . In the Brisbane, Australian taxi driver study, 48% of ethnic minority drivers (originally from India, Pakistan, and Middle East) reported depressive symptoms, as compared to 32% of ethnic majority drivers (originally from Australia, United States, etc) .…”

“…Drivers with higher incomes reported significantly lower stress scores; night shift drivers reported significantly higher stress scores. Those drivers reporting higher discrimination were 2.45 times as likely to report high perceived stress, 1.88 times as likely to report anxiety/depression, and 1.52 times as likely to report chronic pain …”

“…Perceived discrimination was measured in 535 New York taxi drivers, exploring associations with perceived stress and self‐reported anxiety/depression and chronic pain, and other health conditions . Their sample included 22% night shift drivers; night shift drivers reported significantly higher discrimination.…”