Different Scales of Fatigue in Traffic Policemen

To measure five scales of fatigue: i) general, ii) physical, iii) reduced activity, iv) reduced motivation, and v) mental. As well as to examines the impact of age, education, cohabitation, work history and disease on fatigue.

We randomly selected 250 traffic policemen from 15 districts of Tehran as particiants in this study. To identify fatigue, we used the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) questionnaire, before and after the morning shift. Sociodemographic variables were also collected. Descriptive statistics, student's t-test, and ANOVA analysis were performed by SPSS.

Based on the data achieved before beginning shift work, general fatigue (13.5) and reduced activity (7.7) had the highest and lowest fatigue levels, respectively. We noted similar results at the end of the shift among subjects. Fatigue scores in all scales were significantly lower in the morning. There was a strong association between fatigue and cohabitation, work history, disease, tinnitus, sports and eye glasses (P ≤0.05).

The results of the present study show the prevalence rates of fatigue among traffic policemen and its interaction with some sociodemographic variables. Future studies should investigate the effects of additional factors to clarify the etiology of fatigue.