IMPACT OF OCCUPATIONAL FACTORS ON SAFETY AND HEALTH THROUGH ERGONOMIC APPROACH AMONG OLDER TAXI DRIVERS IN MALAYSIA

Authors

  • Irwan syah Md Yusoff Department of Resource Management and Consumer Studies, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia,40300 Serdang. Malaysia.
  • Ismail, M.H Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang. Malaysia
  • Rohaizahtulamni, R Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang. 40300, Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.22/no.1/art.1199

Keywords:

Older, Taxi Drivers, Safety and Health, Ergonomic, Malaysian

Abstract

One of the alternative professions that may include the older is taxi drivers. Subsequently, they have to take explicit thought during driving activities as indicated by their capacity and ability to sustain their lives while minimizing health problems and increasing safety. Therefore, this paper aimed to study from a user experience the impact of occupational factors on safety and health by an ergonomic approach among older taxi drivers in Malaysian. A cross-sectional study was led utilizing a self-administered survey instrument. Purposive method sampling was used based on inclusive criteria; age 60 years old and above, self-driving taxi more than one year, no disabilities, and registered with the Ministry of Transport. A total of 443 respondents participated in the study. SPSS software version 20.0 to analyse the data. More than half of the respondents (70.0%) felt back pain in the past 12 months, and 75.4% in the last seven days. There is a significant relationship health problem (p< 0.05) between variables; BMI, smoking status, carrying luggage into the trunk, supporting of the backrest for the whole body, the effect of the seat size on comfortable driving, feeling of back pain is mainly due to the seat design and long-distance driving and driving posture analysis at the high-risk position and awkward body posture on seat design during handling task. The low implication awareness on ergonomics education could increase health problems and decrease safety while handling the task among older taxi drivers in Malaysia.

References

1. Department Of Statistics, Malaysia.DOSM. Accessed 13 November 2016. Available from World Wide Web; https://www.statistics.gov.my/index.

2. Herriotts, P. (2005). Identification of vehicle design requirements for older drivers. Applied ergonomics, 36(3), 255-262.

3. MIROS (2012) [Online]. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.miros.gov.my/1/publications.php?id_page=19 (Accessed 10th May 2017)

4. Mayhew C. Violent assaults on taxi drivers: incidence patterns and risk factors. Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice. 2000 Nov(178):1-6.

5. Goetsch DL. Occupational safety and health. Pearson India; 2010.

6. Yang Y, Fan XS, Tian CH, Zhang W, Li J, Li SQ. Health status, intention to seek health examination, and participation in health education among taxi drivers in Jinan, China. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. 2014 Apr;16(4).

7. Yusoff IS, Tamrin SB, Majid AZ. Elderly Taxi Drivers: Evaluation of Driving Posture in Malaysia Using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) Approach. InJoint Conference of the Asian Council on Ergonomics and Design and the Southeast Asian Network of Ergonomics Societies 2020 Dec 2 (pp. 308-316). Springer, Cham.

8. Majid AZ, Yusoff IS, Tamrin SB. ASSESSMENT ON SITTING POSTURE RELATION TO RISK FACTORS BY USING CHI-SQUARE TEST AMONG ELDERLY TAXI DRIVERS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA. PLANNING MALAYSIA. 2018 Sep 12;16(6).

9. Yusoff IS, Sabri MF, Wijekoon R, Majid AZ. THE IMPACT OF AN ECONOMIC CHALLENGE ON HEALTH THROUGH DRIVING POSTURE AMONG ELDERLY TAXI DRIVERS IN MALAYSIA. Journal of Critical Reviews. 2020;7(12):4177-84.

10. Yusoffa IS, Majida AZ, Tamrinb SB. Ergonomic Perspective: Driving awkward body posture cause health problem among older taxi driver’s in Malaysia. InSOCIAL SCIENCES POSTGRADUATE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR (SSPIS) 2017 2017 Nov 29.

11. Hermanns I, Raffler N, Ellegast RP, Fischer S, Göres B. Simultaneous field measuring method of vibration and body posture for assessment of seated occupational driving tasks. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. 2008 Mar 1;38(3-4):255-63.

12. Hirao A, Kitazaki S, Yamazaki N. Development of a new driving posture focused on biomechanical loads. SAE Technical Paper; 2006 Apr 3.

13. Chen JC, Chang WR, Chang W, Christiani D. Occupational factors associated with low back pain in urban taxi drivers. Occupational medicine. 2005 Oct 1;55(7):535-40.

14. Funakoshi M, Taoda K, Tsujimura H, Nishiyama K. Measurement of whole?body vibration in taxi drivers. Journal of occupational health. 2004 Mar;46(2):119-24.

15. Tamrin SB, Yokoyama K, Jalaludin J, Aziz NA, Jemoin N, Nordin R, Naing AL, Abdullah Y, Abdullah M. The association between risk factors and low back pain among commercial vehicle drivers in peninsular Malaysia: a preliminary result. Industrial health. 2007;45(2):268-78.

16. Ahmad I, Balkhyour MA, Abokhashabah TM, Ismail IM, Rehan M. Occupational Musculoskeletal Disorders among Taxi Industry Workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia. 2017 Jun 28;14(2):593-606.

17. Srivastava S, Kiran UV. Work related musculoskeletal disorder on various body segment in taxi drivers. International Journal of Science and Research. 2014 Jun;3(6):1-8.

18. Farzana I. Bus Driver? s Cab-Engineering Design Solutions: Future Considerations. Optimal Performance Consultants. 2006.

19. Preusser DF, Williams AF, Ferguson SA, Ulmer RG, Weinstein HB. Fatal crash risk for older drivers at intersections. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 1998 Mar 1;30(2):151-9.

20. Onawumi AS, Lucas EB. Ergonomic investigation of occupational drivers and seat design of taxicabs in Nigeria. ARPN Journal of Science and Technology. 2012;2(3):214-20.

21. AL-Dubai SA, Qureshi AM, Ismail NH, Rampal KG. Prevalence and determinants of low back pain among taxi drivers in Malaysia. A cross sectional study. Journal of Advanced Medical Research. 2012 Dec;2(4):129-43.

22. Miyamoto M, Konno S, Gembun Y, Liu X, Minami K, Ito H. Epidemiological study of low back pain and occupational risk factors among taxi drivers. Industrial health. 2008;46(2):112-7.
23. Nasri H, Moazenzadeh M. Coronary artery disease risk factors in drivers versus people in other occupations. Arya Atherosclerosis. 2010 Dec 8;2(2).

24. Ramukumba TS, Mathikhi MS. Health assessment of taxi drivers in the city of Tshwane. curationis. 2016 Jan 1;39(1):1-7.

25. Bray RM, Pemberton MR, Hourani LL, Witt M, Olmsted KL, Brown JM, Weimer B, Lance ME, Marsden ME, Scheffler S. Department of Defense survey of health related behaviors among active duty military personnel. Research Triangle Inst (RTI) Research Triangle Park NC; 2009 Sep 1.

26. Yesurajan M, Indra T. Common work related health problems of auto rickshaw drivers in India-causes and strategies. IJAR. 2017;3(6):232-6.

27. Kresal F, Bertoncel T, Meško M. Psychosocial factors in the development of low back pain among professional drivers. Organizacija. 2017 Jan 5;50(2).

28. Gyi DE. Driving posture and healthy design. Automotive Ergonomics: Driver-vehicle interaction. 2012 Sep 24:123-32.

29. Vandergrift JL, Gold JE, Hanlon A, Punnett L. Physical and psychosocial ergonomic risk factors for low back pain in automobile manufacturing workers. Occupational and environmental medicine. 2012 Jan 1;69(1):29-34.

30. Coenen P, Kingma I, Boot CR, Bongers PM, van Dieën JH. Cumulative mechanical low-back load at work is a determinant of low-back pain. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2014 May 1;71(5):332-7.

Downloads

Published

2022-04-30

How to Cite

Md Yusoff, I. syah, Ismail, M.H, & Rohaizahtulamni, R. (2022). IMPACT OF OCCUPATIONAL FACTORS ON SAFETY AND HEALTH THROUGH ERGONOMIC APPROACH AMONG OLDER TAXI DRIVERS IN MALAYSIA. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 22(1), 116–123. https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.22/no.1/art.1199