Self-reported health of tour managers in Taiwan

Abstract

# Objective Although travel is associated with obvious health hazards such as infection circadian rhythm disruption and vehicle sickness there are few studies on the health conditions of tour managers who are frequently exposed to these hazards Therefore we conducted a survey on health conditions of tour agency employees in Taiwan # Methods We adopted a cross-sectional study design and recruited tour managers and office staff in tour agencies With assistance of the Association of Tour Managers Taiwan a local trade association of travel agents and a tour company we sent anonymous questionnaires to the participants which collected data on demographic characteristics medical history symptoms and concepts of occupational health The study period was from Oct 2014 to Feb 2015 We used logistic regression models to evaluate relationship between work exposure and health outcomes The data were analyzed using software SPSS V17 0 #?Results and Discussion There were a total of 390 respondents including 238 office staff 95 part-time tour managers and 57 full-time tour managers We found a female predominance in the office staff (73 1% versus 52 0% p <0 001) Tour managers were older (average 46 8 versus 34 2 years old p <0 001) and had higher education levels (p = 0 011) Tour managers had higher prevalence of alcohol consumption (p = 0 004) and slept less during a typical work day (average 5 8±1 3 versus 6 9±1 2 hours) There was no significant difference in the body mass index (BMI) and smoking history between the two groups As to health outcomes tour managers were more likely to have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (odds ratio [OR]: 3 8 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1 2-11 7) and lower back pain (OR: 6 1 95% CI : 1 6-23 9) after adjusting forsex age education level and alcohol consumption Furthermore the prevalence of peptic ulcer/gastritis GERD and lower back pain increased as the weighted job tenure increased (all with p

Date of Award	2015 Aug 30
Original language	English
Supervisor	How-Ran Guo (Supervisor)