Role of Health Risk Behaviors on Occupational Health Disparities in Taiwan

Background: The majority of the population in Taiwan is composed of workers, and spend more than a third of their time each day at work. Their health may be influenced by the risk behaviors and the nature of occupations. The first purpose of the study is to examine occupational health disparities in a national surveillance study in Taiwan. The second purpose is to investigate the interaction between health risk behaviors (alcohol use and smoking) and occupations in predicting cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, and liver diseases.

Method: The face-to-face interviews were conducted based on stratified sampling of 23 counties in Taiwan. 13,741 workers from nine main occupations participated in the study, with an average response rate of 93.3%. To assess occupational health disparities, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted by entering age and gender at the first step, health risk behaviors and occupations at the second step, and cross-products between health risk behaviors and occupations at the final step.

Results: After controlling age and gender, it is found that prevalence rates of cardiovascular disease among elementary occupations and skilled agricultural and fishery workers are approximately two to four times higher than those among other occupations. Interactive effects of health risk behaviors and occupations on diabetes, asthma, and liver disease were supported.

Conclusions: The finding suggests that occupational safety and health promotion programs in the future should consider reduce health risk behaviors to counter adverse effects associated with nature of occupations.