Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Stroke among male professional drivers in Denmark, 1994–2003
  1. F Tüchsen1,
  2. H Hannerz1,
  3. C Roepstorff1,
  4. N Krause2
  1. 1National Institute of Occupational Health, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
  2. 2Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr F Tüchsen
 Department of Surveillance and Epidemiology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Lersø Parkallé 105, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark; ft{at}ami.dk

Abstract

Objectives: (1) To estimate the relative risk of stroke among various groups of professional drivers; (2) to determine if any excess risk should be attributed to infarction or haemorrhage; (3) to estimate the relative risk ratio for stroke among professional drivers living in Greater Copenhagen compared to those living outside the metropolis.

Methods: A cohort of 6285 bus drivers, 4204 car, taxi, and van drivers, and 25 879 heavy truck and lorry drivers were followed up for hospital admission due to stroke and sub-diagnoses in the period 1994–2003. Using hospital admission for all economically active men as the standard, the standardised hospitalisation ratios (SHR) were calculated, taking age and county into consideration.

Results: There was a high SHR for stroke among all groups of professional drivers (SHR = 132; 95% CI 121–141). Among car, taxi, and van drivers the SHR was 157 (95% CI 132–189), among bus drivers it was 139 (95% CI 119–163), and among heavy truck and lorry drivers it was 124 (95% CI 113–136). The excess risk for all groups of professional drivers was highest for cerebrovascular infarction (SHR = 139; 95% CI 124–155) and lowest for non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhage (SHR = 113; 95% CI 96–133). The excess risks for all groups were significantly higher for cerebrovascular infarction than for non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhage (relative risk ratio (RRR) 1.23; 95% CI 1.01–1.51). The RRR of stroke among drivers in the metropolitan area compared to rural areas was 1.13 (95% CI 0.94–1.36). The RRR for stroke among car, taxi, and van drivers compared to drivers of heavy trucks and of lorries was 1.28 (95% CI 1.03–1.57).

Conclusion: All groups of professional drivers are at increased risk of stroke. The excess risk is more due to cerebral infarctions than to non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhage. The risk of stroke is higher among drivers carrying passengers than among drivers carrying goods.

  • CVD, cerebrovascular disease
  • IHD, ischaemic heart disease
  • RRR, relative risk ratio
  • SHR, standard hospitalisation ratio
  • cerebral infarction
  • non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhage
  • bus driver
  • truck driver
  • taxi driver

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Published Online First 30 May 2006

  • Funding: The National Institute of Occupational Health, Denmark, granted the study

  • Competing interests: none