Occupational Musculoskeletal Disorders among Taxi Industry Workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Professional driving is associated with high rates of occupational musculoskeletal disorders (OMSDs). The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of OMSDs among drivers and office workers of taxi industry in Jeddah city. A detailed custom-made questionnaire was used that included socio-demographic and occupational characteristics of subjects together with OMSDs prevalence rates. In this research, 173 subjects participated of which 70.5% were drivers and 29.5% were office workers. Standard Nordic Questionnaire (SNQ) was used to assess 1-year and 1-week prevalence rates of OMSDs in nine body regions. 1-year and 1-week reported prevalence rates of OMSDs among taxi drivers were 85.3 and 51.6%, while among office workers were 52.9 and 31.4%, respectively. The highest self-reported prevalence rates of OMSDs for taxi drivers were found for the lower back (60.7%) and lowest rates for the elbow (14.8%). Whereas, among office workers, the highest prevalence rates were found for the lower back and knee (29.4%) and lowest rates for feet/ankle (2.0%). The chi-square test found significant correlation between being immigrant (p=0.038), hours of driving per day (p=0.002), number of working days per week (p=0.000) with 1-year prevalence of OMSDs, While job experience (p=0.006), hours of driving per day (p=0.004) and break during work (p=0.029) showed significant correlation with perceived 1-week prevalence of OMSDs among taxi drivers in Jeddah.

Impact of COVID-19Quarantine on Low Back Pain Intensity, Prevalence, and Associated Risk Factors among Adult Citizens Residing in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia): A Cross-Sectional Study

“…According to this study’s results, it was also possible to verify that the most common musculoskeletal pain area was the low back, followed by the neck. This result coincides with most of the existing studies conducted in Saudi Arabia that were related to musculoskeletal disorders [ 3 , 30 , 31 , 34 ]. However, this result was slightly different from the results found by Sirajudeen et al [ 29 ] since they observed that the neck was the most common pain area, followed by the low back.…”

“…However, our study´s LBP point prevalence was considerably lower than the 53.2% to 79.17% found by Awaji [ 14 ] in a review made using seven cross-sectional studies conducted in Saudi Arabia. In other recent studies also undertaken in Saudi Arabia among specific professional groups, the point prevalence of LBP found was 80% in nurses [ 10 ], 57.3% in male high school teachers [ 13 ], 55% among faculty members [ 29 ], 40.5% in medical students [ 30 ], 51.6% in taxi drivers, 31.4% in office workers [ 31 ], and 21.2% among health sciences students [ 32 ]. Hence, in most of these cases, the point prevalence was higher than in our study, which could be related to the burden of work, type of professional or academic activity carried out by each group, and poor posture at work [ 33 ].…”

Older Malaysian Taxi Drivers: Working Environment in the New Norm from Ergonomic Perspective

“…Most older taxi drivers drove taxis with a frequency of 6> 10 times (62.8%) in a day, with the average driving within a week being 30.0 ± 13.1 times and 53.0% stating that they did not take a break within a week. This statement supports a previous study that 64.0% of taxi drivers in China who do not take a break within a month (Wang et al, 2017), and 80.3% do not take a break within a week (Ahmad et al, 2017).…”

“…The result stated, 45.4% waiting time to obtain a passenger in a day is 2 to 3 hours, and 57.6% did not nap to obtain a passenger. Several previous studies have also shown similarities with the study results (Abledu et al, 2014;Ahmad et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017;. The majority (91.4%) of older taxi drivers drive more than 251 km of driving distance in a week.…”

“…Driving more than 8 hours a day is 91.6%, and the average in a week of more than 56 hours is 93.7% among older taxi drivers in Peninsular Malaysia. The result shows similarities with the study conducted by Wang et al (2017) 89.0% drive more than 8 hours a day, and 68.0% of taxi drivers work more than 12 hours a day (Ahmad et al, 2017). One of the contributing factors to lower back pain among taxi drivers is long hours driving (Majid et al al., 2018;Ahmad et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017;Abledu et al, 2014) and with a prevalence of 55.9% work more than 31 to 70 hours in a week (Raanaas & Anderson, 2008).…”