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Commercial Driver Medical Examinations: Prevalence of Obesity, Comorbidities, and Certification Outcomes
Matthew S Thiese1, Gary Moffitt, Richard J Hanowski
1From the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational & Environment Health (Drs Thiese and Hegmann), Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Arkansas Occupational Health Clinic (Dr Moffitt), Springdale; Center for Truck and Bus Safety (Dr Hanowski), Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Blacksburg; Department of Environmental Health (Dr Kales), School of Public Health, Harvard, Cambridge, Mass; and Utah Traffic Lab (Dr Porter), Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to assess relationships between body mass index (BMI) and comorbid conditions within a large sample of truck drivers.
Methods:
Commercial driver medical examination data from 88,246 commercial drivers between 2005 and 2012 were analyzed for associations between BMI, medical disorders, and driver certification.
Results:
Most drivers were obese (53.3%, BMI >30.0 kg/m) and morbidly obese (26.6%, BMI >35.0 kg/m), higher than prior reports. Obese drivers were less likely to be certified for 2 years and more likely to report heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, nervous disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic low back pain (all P < 0.0001). There are relationships between multiple potentially disqualifying conditions and increasing obesity (P < 0.0001). Morbid obesity prevalence increased 8.9% and prevalence of three or more multiple conditions increased fourfold between 2005 and 2012.
Conclusions:
Obesity is related to multiple medical factors as well as increasing numbers of conditions that limit driving certification.
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