Traffic as a stress factor for workers

Abstract

Background: According to the IBGE (2007), there are about 5 million vehicles in São Paulo and traffic congestion

is a trivial fact. Stress can affect the driver in three different levels: emotional, cognitive and physical. Objective: Verifying how much more stress do the individuals that requires more attention while driving (drivers themselves) suffer than those who face traffic passively (their passengers). Methods: Transversal observation study through 3.9% active workers from an Automotive Systems Company in Greater São Paulo (1000 employees). To evaluate stress, data were collected through two questionnaires, a general questionnaire about general traffic issues and the LSS. Results and discussion: The majority of employees are women who are aged more than 30 years and earn between R$ 415,00 and R$1245,00 per month; since it is the faster way for them, most use only chartered bus as their main vehicle for work. The majority of workers from administrative areas, with higher salaries, reported a footnote higher than 5 (on a scale of 0-10) to stress caused by traffic, contrasting to the minority of employees from the factory floor against the minority of employees of the factory floor. Conclusion: The work travel time (to work) is basically primarily dependent of the type of transport used (by the employee) and cars are responsible the car is responsible for higher levels of stress (of the workers) for workers.