Ryan F.1, Otto B.2, Khan A.1, Johnston V.1
1The University of Queensland, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Brisbane, Australia, 2National Mining Company, Health and Well-being, Brisbane, Australia
Background: The health of mining employees and the impact of Long Distance Commute (LDC) working arrangements is a topic of great interest in the Australian mining industry. However, our knowledge of the work-related, lifestyle and biomedical factors associated with specific health conditions in mining workers is limited.
Purpose: This study assessed the relative contribution of work-related, lifestyle and biomedical factors to the presence of chronic health conditions in a sample of LDC and residential miners.
Methods: LDC and residential mine workers from one mining company in Australia were invited to complete a comprehensive survey. The survey contained questions on demographics, work-related factors (shift length, psychosocial work factors, physical workload and fatigue); lifestyle risk factors (excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, smoking and inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption) and biomedical risk factors (high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity). The number of chronic health conditions, determined by the Australian Institute of Health and Well-being six National Health Priority Areas (NHPA) was the dependent variable: cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal conditions and injuries, mental health disorders, cancer, diabetes and asthma. Three categories were created from the sum of these six NHPA chronic health conditions: No health conditions, One health condition and Two or more health conditions. To determine the relative risk ratio (RRR) of having one or multiple Australian National Health Priority Area (NHPA) health conditions in the presence of certain variables, multinomial logistic regression was used.
Results: A total of 1056 LDC and 435 residential mine workers responded (68% response rate). Thirty percent of LDC workers reported one; and 11.5% reported two or more chronic health conditions while 34% of residential workers reported one, and 11% reported two or more chronic health conditions. LDC workers reporting excessive alcohol consumption (RRR= 2.56) and obesity (RRR=2.46) were significantly more likely to have multiple NHPA health conditions. Conversely, high levels of physical activity (RRR=0.52) and high job satisfaction (RRR=0.56) were associated with positive health benefits in LDC workers. Residential workers reporting high job satisfaction (RRR=0.38) and moderate (RRR=0.28) to high (RRR=0.22) levels of social support were less likely to report single or multiple NHPA health conditions. High blood pressure, dayshift fatigue and high psychological job demands were consistent risk factors for poor health across both the LDC and residential populations.
Conclusion(s): Lifestyle factors may be more relevant for the health of LDC miners and work-related factors more important for the health of residential miners. Future research should consider the administration of follow-up surveys to better establish the factors predictive of the NHPA health conditions.
Implications: There is a need for targeted health campaigns for both LDC and residential mining populations. For LDC workers, these campaigns should promote the benefits of regular physical activity; endorse the safe consumption of alcohol and maintenance of a healthy body weight range. Similarly, targeted health promotion for residential workers should focus primarily on encouraging frameworks of social support.
Funding acknowledgements: No financial support was provided, however the participating organisation provided in-kind support by allowing workers time to complete the survey.
Topic: Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained from the University of Queensland Medical Research Ethics Committee #2011000034
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
