Factors Associated with Driver Fatigue at a District Office of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration

Abstract

     This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to examine the prevalence of driver’s fatigue and its correlated factors at the district office of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The sample consisted of 87 drivers who were selected with stratified random sampling method. Questionnaire and critical flicker frequency (CFF) were used to collect the research data which were analyzed with descriptive statistics including number, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Variable correlations were determined using Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test.

     Results indicated that samples were exclusively male, with an average age of 46.63 and 37.9% of whom used medications regularly, 6.3% of whom drive to collect solid waste with an average working hours of 6.04 per day. CFF results indicated ten drivers with prevalence of fatigue, with a rate of 11.5%, and 70% of whom were from Sanitation and Parks Department. In terms of the correlating factors with the driver’s fatigue: regular drug intake was identified. Additionally, it was the sole factor that significantly correlates with driver’s fatigue (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that BMA should provide professional guidelines to prevent driver’s fatigue, especially on train drivers in maintaining good and quality health, getting adequate rest before driving, and providing adequate breaks between driving assignments. In addition, a driver self-examination should be implemented before starting new work assignments to prevent and reduce severity of accidents.