Physical and mental health of oil workers engaged in desert field operation

Objective To examine the status of occupational stress and physical health among oil workers engaged in desert field operation and to provide evidences for health promotion in the workers.Methods Cross-sectional study was adopted to investigate 1 500 oil workers engaged in desert field operation.Perceived occupational stress and physical health were evaluated with Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition(OSI-R)and a questionnaire on non-communicable chronic diseases.Results The top five chronic diseases with higher prevalences were neck or lumbar illness(19.9%), hypertension(15.3%), hyperlipidemia(11.3%), osteoarticular diseases(9.7%), and chronic diseases of digestive system(9.4%), with higher prevalences of hypertension and hyperlipidemia among the male workers than among the female workers (both P<0.05), and the prevalence of neck or lumbar illness and hypertension increased with the increment of working years(P<0.05).The level of occupational stress was significantly different among the workers of different gender and kind of work(P<0.05)and positively related to the prevalence of hypertension(P<0.05)Conclusion Occupational stress is serious, the physical health status is not good, and gender, working years and occupational stress are influencing factors of chronic illnesses among the oil workers engaged in desert field operation.