Effectiveness of health promotion programmes for truck drivers: A systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To review the characteristics of effective health promotion interventions for reducing chronic diseases and their risk factors in truck drivers. Methods: MEDLINE (PubMed), SCOPUS, Web of Science Conference Proceedings, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and the National Transportation Library were searched using keywords related to ‘truck driver’, ‘commercial driver’, and ‘health promotion’. Reference lists of relevant documents were hand-searched. Results: The search strategy identified 2,372 non-duplicate citations, of which nine met the inclusion criteria. These nine articles represented eight unique interventions. No studies measured chronic disease as an outcome. Six interventions incorporated multiple components and reported positive findings on various intermediate health outcomes (i.e. body mass index [BMI], % body fat) or health behaviours (i.e. nutrition, physical activity). The other two interventions modified work practices only, and found no significant improvements on fatigue and psychosocial measures. Conclusion: Health promotion interventions for truck drivers can improve both intermediate health outcomes and health behaviours over the short term. The small body of literature on health promotion interventions is a concern given that truck drivers are an at-risk population and their health impacts the safety of the driving public. Studies primarily focused on changes at the individual level and this is also a concern as environmental and work organisation factors are important determinants of both chronic disease outcomes and health-related behaviours in truck drivers. Future research should also include economic evaluations as well as methods to determine facilitators and barriers to programme participation and continuation.