More than just “stressful”? testing the mediating role of fatigue on the relationship between job stress and occupational crashes of long-haul truck drivers
Introduction: Recent evidence consistently highlights the adverse work environment of long-haul professional drivers, whose task structure typically involves the performance of extensive shifts, driving under stressful working conditions. In this regard, job stress and fatigue – that are highly prev...
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | Colombia |
| Institución: | Universidad El Bosque |
| Repositorio: | Repositorio U. El Bosque |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.unbosque.edu.co:20.500.12495/7128 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12495/7128 https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S305687 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Fatigue Job stress Long-haul truck drivers Occupational accidents Psychosocial factors at work |
| Sumario: | Introduction: Recent evidence consistently highlights the adverse work environment of long-haul professional drivers, whose task structure typically involves the performance of extensive shifts, driving under stressful working conditions. In this regard, job stress and fatigue – that are highly prevalent in this workforce – seem to play a crucial role in explaining this group’s negative traffic safety outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess whether work-related fatigue is a mechanism that mediates the relationship between job stress, health indicators and occupational traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers (LHTD). Methods: The data used in this study were collected from 521 Spanish long-haul truck drivers (97% males) from all 17 regions of Spain, with a mean age of 47 years. Results: Utilizing structural equation models (SEM), it was found that work-traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers could be explained through work-related fatigue that exerts a full mediation between job stress (job strain), health-related factors and traffic crashes suffered during the previous two years. Discussion: Overall, the findings of this research support that a) stressful working conditions and health issues of drivers have significant effects on traffic crashes, and b) fatigue is a mechanism relating stress-related factors and work-traffic crashes of long-haul drivers. This study highlights the need of stress- and fatigue-management policies and interventions, in order to reduce the crash risk of long-haul truck drivers. |
|---|