Exploring factors that influence the cardiovascular health of bus drivers for the improvement of transit safety

The causes of traffic accidents include sudden cardiovascular disease events of drivers that go undetected in routine physical examinations of their health. While increased attention has been paid to proactive driver management by the frequent monitoring of drivers’ mental and physical condition to avoid such events, very few studies have examined the deeper risk factors that influence the cardiovascular health of bus drivers represented by workload and scheduling. To fill this knowledge gap, this study adopts a data mining approach to exploring the factors influencing the cardiovascular health of intercity bus drivers using their daily cardiovascular measurement data along with their schedules and routine physical examination results. Ten influencing factors were identified, including medical history, late-night habits and afternoon and evening driving schedules. The present findings will be useful for preventing accidents where cardiovascular disease is involved, which in turn will help improve transit safety.