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Causal And Contributing Factors Of Obesity

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Causal & Contributing Factors
Several million commercial truckers operate within a transportation environment encompassed with multicomponent workplaces that have policies and regulations which govern them. Truckers’ “burden” of disease, inaccessibility to health-promoting resources, and the number of occupational hazards within their profession, indicate that trucking is among the most underserved occupational segments.
Obesity is a significant contributing risk factor for a higher prevalence of fatigue and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in the general population. Obesity is also linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These associations represent significant occupational hazards during the performance of complex tasks such as, piloting an aircraft, driving trucks, and operating public transit vehicles, which require workers to have constant focus, attention and vigilance (Dinges et al., 1997; Dagan et al., 2006; Cohen et al., 2010). Therefore, even a slight increase in risk could have substantial impact on the population attributable risk, given the incidence rate of fatigue related crashes and the high prevalence of obesity among drivers (Dixon et al., 2007). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) provided estimates that approximately 20% of all serious injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes are associated with drowsy driving (Garbarino et al., 2001). The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) gave evidence that over 30% of truck driver fatal crashes are fatigue

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