March 28, 2008
Did you know...?
Research nods to link between obesity and daytime sleepiness.
Staying awake means staying alive. This is a slogan used to describe a research study on sleep apnea sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the American Transportation Research Institute of the American Trucking Associations (ATA). The research project addressed the prevalence of sleep apnea among commercial truck drivers, potential risk factors, and its impact on driving performance.
Sleep apnea is a major contributor to daytime drowsiness - a condition that could prove deadly for commercial truck drivers and involved passenger vehicles. It is a condition where, during sleep, a narrowing or closure of the upper airway causes repeated sleep disturbances leading to poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness. Since excessive sleepiness can be a consequence of sleeping disturbances, drivers with sleep apnea have compromised driving performance leading to increases in the risks of crashes. According to the Divided Attention Driving Task, a research test designed to mimic driving performance, individuals with sleep apnea perform, on average, as poorly as individuals whose levels of blood alcohol concentration exceed the legal limit.
A major contributor to sleep apnea is obesity. The study conducted by FMCSA revealed that the prevalence of sleep apnea depends on the relationship between two major factors: age and degree of obesity, with prevalence increasing with both. This relationship is important, because it provides the commercial driving industry with predictions that are useful in estimating the prevalence of sleep apnea in any population of drivers.
Based on the recommendations from the study, a committee panel of experts from various backgrounds was formed to review and develop public policies on sleep apnea and make appropriate recommendations. The medical review board will finalize recommendations about truckers and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on April 7th. The board is expected to recommend that commercial truckers by required to undergo a sleep study once they reach a certain level of obesity. If the FMCSA approves, drivers would have to be treated for OSA in order to get certified.
Although the prevalence of severe sleep apnea and chronic inadequate sleep among commercial truck drivers gives rise to serious concerns, it can be a reversible condition with effective treatment. However, a major challenge to ensuring driver safety against the adverse effects of sleep apnea is to develop cost-effective ways of identifying at-risk drivers, and ensuring a solution to this treatable and preventable problem.
The goal of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is to reduce commercial vehicle related fatalities, as well as the number of persons injured in commercial vehicle related crashes, by 50 percent by the year 2010. This reduction translates into a rate of 1.65 fatalities in truck crashes per 100 million miles of truck travel.
For more information visit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's webpage at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/. To read more about the study copy and paste the following link in to your browser: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/research-technology/tech/Sleep-Apnea-Technical-Briefing.htm.
To learn more about
services OHS-COMPCARE has to offer, contact our Client Services
Team at (816) 561-2105 option 1 or by e-mail at customerservice@ohscompcare.com. You can also visit us at www.ohscompcare.com.
*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*
OHS-COMPCARE has eight (8) area clinical facilities:
|
Blue Springs Clinical Facility |
Independence Clinical Facility |
Johnson County Clinical Facility |
St. Joseph Clinical Facility |
|
801 NW St. Mary’s Drive |
19000 E. Eastland Center Crt, St. 200 |
10415 Lackman Road |
904 Edmond Street |
|
Blue Springs, MO 64104 |
Independence, MO 64055 |
Lenexa, KS 66219 |
St. Joseph, MO 64501 |
|
816-224-9121 |
816-478-9299 |
913-495-9905 |
816-233-7702 |
|
|
After Hours Available |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
KCMO/Broadway Clinical Facility |
KCMO/Front Street Clinical Facility |
Wyandotte County Clinical Facility |
Grandview Clinical Facility |
|
1650 Broadway |
6501 East Commerce, Suite 110 |
1333 Meadowlark Lane, Suite 200 |
13830 S Us Highway 71 |
|
Kansas City, MO 64108 |
Kansas City, MO 64120 |
Kansas City, KS 66102 |
Grandview, MO 64030 |
|
816-842-2020 |
816-483-5550 |
913-596-2774 |
816-761-4664 |