Abstract
BACKGROUND: Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) workers travel to work at isolated locations, and rotate continuous workdays with leave periods at home, and such work practice is common in the offshore oil and gas and onshore mining industry worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health actions appear to have had a negative impact on several health-related behaviours among the general population. However, little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health behaviours of FIFO workers, who have shown higher pre-pandemic rates of risky behaviours than the general population in Australia. This study examined the health-related behaviours of FIFO workers in the mining industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. FIFO workers from an Australian mining company who underwent COVID-19 screening between May and November 2020 completed an online survey about their regular health-related behaviours. The independent sample t-test and Pearson's chi-square test where appropriate were conducted to examine the differences between males and females for the behavioural outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 768 FIFO workers (633 males and 135 females) participated in the study. Prevalence of smoking was high (32%). Males smoked more cigarettes per day than females (15.2±7.0 vs 13.1±7.1, p = .174). Most participants (74.7%) drank alcohol on more than two days per week. Compared to females, more males (20.2% vs 8.0%) consumed alcohol at short-term harmful levels (p = .010). About a third (34.4%) of the workers (33.5% of males and 38.5% of females, p = .264) engaged in inadequate moderate-vigorous exercises/physical activity. About a third (33.1%) of workers (33.7% of males and 30.4% of females; p = .699) had multiple risk behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of multiple risk behaviours was high. Interventions aimed at the prevention of risky health-related behaviours should target the different behavioural patterns and may require emphasis on gender-informed techniques particularly when addressing alcohol consumption.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0275008 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | PloS ONE |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding: The study received funding from Mineral Resources Limited (Australia). Mineral ResourcesLimited provided AUS$ 200 shopping voucher to the winner of a raffle draw as reimbursement for study participation. Mineral Resources Limited (Australia) provided support for this study in the form of salaries to authors MS and CH. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. Employees of Mineral Resources Limited played role in the datacollection, interpretation of study findings, preparation and decision to submit this manuscript for publication but not in the design of the study and data analysis. The preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Aberdeen-Curtin Alliance International Postgraduate ResearchScholarship scheme awarded to BY-AA.
Data Availability Statement
Data cannot be shared publicly due to privacy or ethical restrictions. Data are available from the Curtin University Data Access/Ethics Committee (contact via HREC@cutin.edu.au) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.
Access to Document
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