Purpose: Mental health is a global public health challenge, with mental disorders being a major cause of morbidity. Particularly, taxi drivers face unique challenges related to long working hours, economic instability, and hazardous working conditions. To summarise the existing scientific literature on mental disorders in taxi drivers and identify associated variables.
Methods: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were examined from inception to April 2024 following the PRISMA guidelines. Two authors independently selected original studies. We included observational studies published in English or Spanish or Portuguese, which assessed the mental health of taxi drivers. The Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHBLI) was used to assess the quality of the articles.
Results: From an initial pool of 618 studies, eleven met the inclusion criteria and were included in the present systematic review. The findings indicate a considerable prevalence of mental health issues among taxi drivers in comparison to the general population. The prevalence of depression ranged from 14.3 to 60.5% and were driven by a number of factors, including perceived mental strain, lack of respect from operators, a stressful personal life, insufficient sleep, poor working conditions, work-family conflict and low work engagement. Anxiety was reported by 24.1-47% of drivers, with a lack of sufficient sleep being identified as a primary contributing factor. The prevalence of stress ranged from 19 to 55%, with key contributing factors including discrimination, smoking, limited language proficiency, sleep disorders and younger age. Furthermore, 33% of drivers displayed elevated levels of psychological distress, frequently linked to traumatic experiences and occupational hazards.
Conclusions: Rates of depression, anxiety, stress and psychological distress are higher in taxi drivers than in general population, therefore prevention strategies should target this group.
Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO registration no. CRD42023360073.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-024-02117-4 | DOI Listing |
Int Arch Occup Environ Health
January 2025
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Purpose: Mental health is a global public health challenge, with mental disorders being a major cause of morbidity. Particularly, taxi drivers face unique challenges related to long working hours, economic instability, and hazardous working conditions. To summarise the existing scientific literature on mental disorders in taxi drivers and identify associated variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom.
Efficient planning is a distinctive hallmark of intelligence in humans, who routinely make rapid inferences over complex world contexts. However, studies investigating how humans accomplish this tend to focus on naive participants engaged in simplistic tasks with small state spaces, which do not reflect the intricacy, ecological validity, and human specialization in real-world planning. In this study, we examine the street-by-street route planning of London taxi drivers navigating across more than 26,000 streets in London (United Kingdom).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Graduate Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Background And Objective: Relevant research has provided valuable insights into risk factors for bicycle crashes at intersections. However, few studies have focused explicitly on three common types of bicycle crashes on road segments: overtaking, rear-end, and door crashes. This study aims to identify risk factors for overtaking, rear-end, and door crashes that occur on road segments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Trace Elem Res
December 2024
Laboratory of Toxicology (LATOX), Department of Analysis, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Rua São Luis 150-Anexo II, Santa Cecília, Porto Alegre, RS, CEP: 90610-000, Brazil.
Occupational exposure to pollutants may cause health-damaging effects in humans. Genotoxicity assays can be used to detect the toxic effects of pollutants. In the present study, we evaluated genetic damage in three populations occupationally exposed to benzene, pyrenes, and agrochemicals and assessed the possible influence of titanium (Ti) co-exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To analyze mortality attributed to Alzheimer's disease among taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, occupations that demand frequent spatial and navigational processing, compared with other occupations.
Design: Population based cross-sectional study.
Setting: Use of death certificates from the National Vital Statistics System in the United States, which were linked to occupation, 1 January 2020-31 December 2022.
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