Preplanned Studies: The Health Demands of Designated Drivers — Four Cities, China, 2019

As an emerging profession, the number of hired designated drivers is growing quickly in China. Designated driver services play an important role in reducing driving under the influence and road traffic fatalities (1). This kind of job is characterized by mobility, long hours, and high pressure, and therefore, designated drivers face a great deal of occupational health risks. This study aimed to investigate the health demands of designated drivers and provided targeted suggestions for improving their health. The survey was conducted from July to August 2019 in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities as well as Hangzhou and Zunyi cities, in which an electronic questionnaire was administrated to hired designated drivers who participated in physical examinations. A total of 327 designated drivers completed the questionnaire. The results showed that the percentage of drivers who had ever received a physical examination was low. The willingness of participants to have a medical examination decreased with an increase in the proportion of their own expenditure. Mobile phones, doctors/nurses, and TV/radio were the top three sources of health information for designated drivers. This study suggested that the platforms serving designated drivers should provide scientific and reasonable guidance on healthy lifestyles through the app and organize physical examinations for designated drivers to monitor their health status.

This survey was carried out using an electronic questionnaire from July to August 2019. Participants were recruited from designated drivers who participated in physical examinations organized by a designated driver service platform in Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Zunyi. A total of 390 designated drivers participated in the questionnaire survey, and a total of 327 questionnaires were collected with a response rate of 83.85%. Of those, 98 subjects were from Beijing, 71 from Tianjin, 87 from Hangzhou, and 71 from Zunyi. An online survey tool of “Wenjuanxing” was employed to make the questionnaires, collect data, and store data. The contents of the questionnaire included general information (age, gender, income, insurance, education level, and daily working time), health status (sleep time, sleep problems, chronic disease, and driving fatigue), health-related behaviors (smoking, drinking, exercise, and fruit/pork/vegetable intake), and health demands (willingness to learn about the health knowledge and to get physical examinations). All the participants provided informed consent.

SAS (version 9.4, SAS Institute, North Carolina, the United States) was used to conduct all analyses. Data of working years, daily working time, and self-pay ratio were not normally distributed; therefore, these variables were presented by median and interquartile range, and the statistical inference was calculated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The categorical data were described by constituent ratio, and chi-squared tests or Fisher’s exact probability test were employed to examine the difference between the two groups. A P-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Among the 327 designated drivers, 268 participants were full-time and 59 participants were part-time. A total of 82.87% of participants were under 45 years old, and 98.47% of them were male. The educational levels of designated drivers were ranged from less than or equal to junior high school to college, with a significant difference between full- and part-time drivers (P<0.05). Overall, 32.72% of participants did not have any type of medical insurance. The median of working years was 2 years, with no difference between the two working types (P>0.05). The median daily working time was 9 hours for full-time drivers and 7 hours for part-time drivers, with significant differences between the two (P<0.05). Results are shown in Table 1.

Overall, 93.27% of participants actively learned about health information, with no difference between the 2 working types (P>0.05); 66.67% of the participants had received physical examinations previously, 33.33% never received a physical examination, and the difference between the two working types was statistically significant (P<0.05). Under the following payment conditions for physical examinations, including free of charge, partially funded, and fully self-pay, 99.39%, 79.51%, and 41.90% of designated drivers, respectively, were willing to have physical examinations. The median proportion of willingness to pay was 45.5% for full-time drivers and 50% for part-time drivers, with no difference between the two (P>0.05).

The percentage of learning first aid knowledge among the respondents was low, 40.98% of the drivers had not learned about it. As for the view of carrying simple emergency medical supplies when working, 74.62% of the participants thought that they should carry, 7.64% of them did not think so, and 17.74% of them did not care about it. There was no significant difference between full-time and part-time drivers in terms of having first aid knowledge and willingness on carrying emergency medical supplies (P>0.05). The results are presented in Table 2.

Overall, 63.00%, 51.68%, and 47.09% of designated drivers obtained relevant health knowledge through mobile phones, doctors/nurses, and TV/radio, respectively. The other ways of accessing information were through newspapers/books, family, colleagues/friends, computers, etc. A total of 72.17% of participants agreed that mobile apps were the most acceptable way for participants to acquire health knowledge. With respect to health knowledge manuals and health knowledge lectures, the proportions of agreement were 13.15% and 13.15%. These numbers are illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1. 

Ways for designated drivers to obtain health knowledge in China, 2019.

Note: Participants could select multiple answers.

Figure 2. 

Acceptable ways for designated drivers to acquire health knowledge in China, 2019.

Note: Participants could only select single answers.