| 摘要： | Background/Aim: Tourism is rapidly developing worldwide, and many worker engaged themselves in this growing industry. Tour managers are frequently exposed to various health hazards associated with travel, but data on the health conditions of this working population are limited. We conducted a survey on health conditions of tour agency employees in Taiwan. Methods: We recruited tour managers and office staff in tour agencies and sent anonymous questionnaires to the participants, which collected data on demographic characteristics, medical history, and recent symptoms. In addition to uni-variate analyses, we used logistic regression models to evaluate relationship between touring areas and health outcomes. Results: A total of 390 workers, including 238 office staff, 95 part-time tour managers, and 57 full-time tour managers participated in this study. We found tour managers were more likely to have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (odds ratio [OR]: 3.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2-11.7) and lower back pain (OR: 6.1, 95% CI: 1.6-23.9), after adjusting for sex, age, education level, and alcohol consumption. In further analyses of data on tour managers, we found those who managed tours to North-East Asia reported more recent coughs (OR: 14.8, 95%CI: 3.1-70.7), after adjusting for multiple tour-leading areas, sex, age, body mass index, educational level, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Conclusions: We observed higher prevalence of self-reported GERD and lower back pain among tour managers compared to office staff. We also found that tour managers managing tours to North-East Asia reported more coughs in the past three months. |
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