Lifestyles in offshore workers from a sub-Saharan Africa platform

Abstract

The offshore worker is confined to a limited space during a certain period of time. Investigating how the characteristics of the work environment affect workers’ health is a concern. The objective of this study was to assess the lifestyles of offshore workers from a sub-Saharan Africa platform. Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional study with a sample of 99 offshore workers, all of the male gender, with mean age 39.11-11.69 years; 78.5% are married and 83.8% have scholarship between the 5th and 12th grades. Data collection was accomplished through a selfadministered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic, professional and lifestyle variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 for Windows. Results: Of the offshore workers, 54.2% reported having 3 or more children; 54.5% have one woman and 24.2% have two women; 33.3% indicated to have two residences. Regarding the professional variables, on average, the number of years working offshore was 10.07±5.52 years and 75.8% of the workers performed a rotation system of 4 weeks. Referring to lifestyle variables, 54.5% reported drinking coffee daily, 20% having coffee after 20 hours, on average drinking 3.37-1.83 coffees a day; 74.4% reported that they consume soft drinks daily, the most consumed soft drink was coca-cola (67.6%); almost all workers consumed alcoholic beverages on land (83.8%), with the most consuming mainly beer (68.7%); 22.2% smoke and on average smoke 15.64 ± 8.52 cigarettes per day. More than half of the sample had pre-obesity (63.6%) and 19.2% obesity; 45.5% reported that they sometimes exercise and 22.2% frequently exercise. In the last 12 months, 72.0% of workers consumed sleeping pills; 14.0% suffer from some kind of disease, the most prevalent being hypertension (42.9%); in the last 12 months 91.0% of the sample consulted a physician and 78.0% consulted a general practitioner. Conclusions: We found high prevalences of unhealthy lifestyles, consumptions, lack of regular exercise, overweight and almost half of the workers suffer from hypertension.