Andrew Yang on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1245
“something like 88 percent of truckers have an early marker for chronic disease like oh you know like substance abuse diabetes obesity high blood pressure”
What the evidence says
Yang claimed about 88% of truckers show an early marker for chronic disease such as substance abuse, diabetes, obesity, or high blood pressure. The most authoritative data on this topic, the CDC/NIOSH National Survey of U.S. Long-Haul Truck Drivers (1,670 drivers surveyed in 2010, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in 2014), found individual risk-factor prevalence of 68.9% for obesity, 26.3% for hypertension, and 14.4% for self-reported diabetes, each roughly double the general working population's rate for obesity and smoking. The survey's headline combined statistic was that 61% of long-haul truck drivers reported two or more of six risk factors (hypertension, obesity, smoking, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, and short sleep duration), not 88%. No peer-reviewed or government source located reports an 88% figure for truckers having "an early marker" of chronic disease, whether defined narrowly or broadly (including even one of any risk factor). The 88% figure appears to be a misremembered or inflated version of the 61%-with-two-or-more-risk-factors statistic that is widely cited in trucking health literature and journalism.
- Obesity and other risk factors: the national survey of U.S. long-haul truck driver health and injury - PubMed · government
- Obesity and other risk factors: the national survey of U.S. long-haul truck driver health and injury · government
- Long-Haul Truck Drivers Health and Injury | NIOSH | CDC · government