دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی درک نقش کیفیت و طول مدت خواب در ایمنی رانندگی تجاری - نشریه الزویر

abstract

Introduction: Long-haul truck drivers in the United States suffer disproportionately high injury rates. Sleep is a critical factor in these outcomes, contributing to fatigue and degrading multiple aspects of safety-relevant performance. Both sleep duration and sleep quality are often compromised among truck drivers; however, much of the efforts to combat fatigue focus on sleep duration rather than sleep quality. Thus, the current study has two objectives: (1) to determine the degree to which sleep impacts safetyrelevant performance among long-haul truck drivers; and (2) to evaluate workday and non-workday sleep quality and duration as predictors of drivers’ safety-relevant performance. Materials and methods: A non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed to collect survey and biometric data from 260 long-haul truck drivers. The Trucker Sleep Disorders Survey was developed to assess sleep duration and quality, the impact of sleep on job performance and accident risk, and other relevant work organization characteristics. Descriptive statistics assessed work organization variables, sleep duration and quality, and frequency of engaging in safety-relevant performance while sleepy. Linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate relationships between sleep duration, sleep quality, and work organization variables with safety composite variables. Results: Drivers reported long work hours, with over 70% of drivers working more than 11 h daily. Drivers also reported a large number of miles driven per week, with an average of 2,812.61 miles per week, and frequent violations of hours-of-service rules, with 43.8% of drivers “sometimes to always” violating the “14-h rule.” Sleep duration was longer, and sleep quality was better, on non-workdays compared on workdays. Drivers frequently operated motor vehicles while sleepy, and sleepiness impacted several aspects of safety-relevant performance. Sleep quality was better associated with driving while sleepy and with job performance and concentration than sleep duration. Sleep duration was better associated with accidents and accident risk than sleep quality. Discussion: Sleep quality appears to be better associated with safety-relevant performance among longhaul truck drivers than sleep duration. Comprehensive and multilevel efforts are needed to meaningfully address sleep quality among drivers.

5. Conclusions

Long-haul truck drivers’ job performance and concentration are often inhibited by sleepiness, with accidents and injuries often occurring due to sleep. While sleep duration continues to be a primary focus on the part of federal regulatory bodies and the trucking industry itself in improving safety outcomes among longhaul truck drivers, our findings point to the crucial importance of sleep quality in such outcomes. As our data point to sleep quality as a more important predictor for safety outcomes overall, we suggest comprehensive, multilevel actions to improve the sleep quality oflong-haultruck drivers as a key strategic avenue in reducing accidents and injuries for both this population and the general motoring public. These actions should include: Changes at the federal level to hours-of-service regulations such as mandating sleep during circadian nadirs, as well as changes to the built environment, including providing more safe parking locations; changes among shippers and consignees by prohibiting pick-up and delivery windows that deprive drivers of sleep during circadian nadirs; and changes among trucking companies to provide compressive workplace health and wellness programs and to modify scheduling procedures and pay structures to better support sufficient sleep.