A cross-sectional study of work-related and lifestyle factors associated with the health of Australian long distance commute and residential miners

Background

The Australian mining industry employs 269,300 workers annually which is approximately 3% of the total Australian workforce. Employees are often required to work multiple consecutive shifts during compressed ‘on/off’ working rosters, long distance commute (LDC) working arrangements and extended (10–12h) day/night shift rotations. The impact of LDC working arrangements on the health of mining employees is a topic of great interest in the Australian mining industry. However, despite our reliance on these LDC workers there is currently mixed evidence regarding the effect of these working arrangements on employee health. Subsequently, the need for comprehensive research into the health of these workers is well recognised and this study provides the first step towards understanding how specific work-related, lifestyle and biomedical factors are associated with health risks in mining workers.

Purpose

This study assessed how work-related, lifestyle and biomedical factors are associated with the presence of chronic health conditions in a sample of LDC and residential miners.

Methods

A comprehensive cross-sectional survey was administered to residential and LDC employees of one mining company in Australia. The survey contained questions on demographics (age, gender, level of education, living arrangement and marital status), work-related factors (shift length, psychosocial work factors, physical work load, sleep and fatigue); lifestyle risk factors (excessive alcohol consumption, levels of physical activity, smoking status and inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption) and bio-medical risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight and obesity). The dependent variable was the number of chronic health conditions defined by the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing as National Health Priority Areas (NHPA), these being: cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal conditions and injuries, mental health disorders, cancer and asthma. The sum of these six NHPA chronic health conditions was used to create three categories: workers with ‘no health conditions’, workers with ‘one health condition’ and workers with ‘two or more health conditions’. Two multinomial logistic regression models were constructed for two populations (residential and LDC employees) to determine the relative risk ratio (RRR) of having one or multiple health conditions for work-related, lifestyle and biomedical variables.

Results

A total of 1056 LDC workers and 435 residential mine workers participated in the survey representing a response rate of 68%. LDC workers were significantly more likely than residential workers to be younger, report a year 12 high school certificate as their highest level of education and describe their current living arrangement as living alone with no children. Across both populations, 26.3% of all mining employees reported having a musculoskeletal condition or injury, 22.4% reported having a mental health disorder, 4.6% reported having asthma, 1.9% reported having diabetes, 1.5% reported having cancer and 0.7% reported having a cardiovascular disease. There was no significant difference in the proportion of chronic health conditions reported in these two sub-populations: with 54.4% of LDC workers and 52.4% of residential workers reporting no health conditions, 30% of LDC workers and 34% of residential workers reporting one health condition and 11.5% of LDC workers and 11% of residential workers reporting two or more health conditions. However, the factors associated with those reporting none, one or multiple NHPA health conditions in each population were different. LDC workers reporting excessive alcohol consumption (RRR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.19–5.52) and obesity (RRR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.14–5.34) were significantly more likely to have two or more health conditions compared to workers with no NHPA health condition, after adjusting for other factors. Conversely, LDC workers reporting high levels of physical activity (RRR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.34–0.78) were less likely to report a single NHPA health condition while those reporting high levels of job satisfaction (RRR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.33–0.97) were less likely to report multiple NHPA health conditions. Residential workers reporting high job satisfaction (RRR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.18–0.79) and moderate (RRR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.11–0.72) to high (RRR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.08–0.57) levels of social support were less likely to report multiple NHPA health conditions, after adjusting for other factors. High blood pressure and dayshift fatigue were consistently associated with single and multiple health conditions across both the LDC and residential populations while high psychological demands were associated with multiple NHPA health conditions (RRR= 1.82, 95% CI: 1.01–3.26) in LDC workers and a single NHPA health condition (RRR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.03–2.57) in residential workers [1].

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that high blood pressure, daytime fatigue, and psychological job demands were consistently associated with NHPA health conditions across both populations. However, it is evident that lifestyle factors may be more relevant for the health of LDC miners and work-related factors more important for the health of residential miners. The findings of this exploratory study make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the health of Australian mining employees. Future research should consider a prospective study design to establish the factors predictive of NHPA health conditions.

Implications

The findings implicate the need for targeted health campaigns for both LDC and residential mining populations. These targeted campaigns are likely to be more effective for LDC workers by promoting the benefits of regular physical activity, endorsing the safe consumption of alcohol and maintaining a healthy body weight range. Similarly, targeted health promotion for residential workers should focus primarily on encouraging frameworks of social support. Policy makers should consider closer monitoring of job satisfaction, psychological job demands, and fatigue to minimise the influence of these working arrangements on employee health. Further, intervention centred on the awareness of high blood pressure should also be considered within a holistic approach to health in the mining industry.

Ethics approval

Approval provided by the University of Queensland Medical Research Ethics Committee #2011000034.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

There was no financial support to complete the research, however, there was in-kind support from the participating organisation to allow workers to complete the survey during working time.