Respiratory Health Problem among the Taxi Drivers of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Nepal

Respiratory health problems affect the respiratory tract and lungs. WHO states that four major potentially fatal respiratory problems will account for about one in five deaths worldwide by 2030. Taxi drivers are among the major sub-population at the risk of respiratory problems because of their exposure to polluted environment. Therefore, the present study aimed to find out the respiratory health problems among the taxi drivers of Pokhara metropolitan city of Nepal. A cross sectional study was conducted among 203 taxi drivers of the Pokhara Metropolitan city. Multistage sampling method was used to select the desired number of taxi drivers. Data were entered into EPI-DATA 3.1 and then analyzed in SPSS 20. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation were assessed to describe, and chi square test was used to infer the findings. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from Nepal Health Research Council. All samples were male with mean age of 38.46 ± 7.8 years. Majority of the taxi drivers were educated up to secondary level (54.2%), married (91.6%), were married and 78.8 percent had income of NRs 1000-1500/day. A large proportion of the drivers (96.6%) had to work for more than 10 hours/day and three-quarters (74.4%) of them did not take rest even in weekends. Nearly a quarter (24.1%) of them complained at least one respiratory health problem or symptom. Prevalence of respiratory health problems among the taxi drivers was 24.1 percent. Job duration was significantly associated with the respiratory symptoms. Key words : Respiratory problem, preventive practice, taxi driver