To target truck drivers’ health inequalities, members of the NIHR Leicester BRC’s Lifestyle theme based at Loughborough University created the ‘Structured Health Intervention For Truckers’ (SHIFT), a health promotion programme designed to promote physical activity and positive lifestyle changes.
This programme has been shown to be effective in increasing HGV drivers’ physical activity levels and reducing their daily sitting time.
In drivers most at-risk, those with obesity for example, the programme led to greater increases in physical activity, reductions in sitting time and weight loss. As no national-level health education resources exist for UK truck drivers, BRC researchers translated SHIFT into a scalable 7-hour driver training module, and 1-hour short course (Short-SHIFT), to embed within industry-delivered mandatory driver training.
UK truck drivers must undertake 35-hours of mandatory training over 5-years to maintain their licences. Both programmes have been implemented by a major UK logistics operator and are currently available to their 7,000-wide HGV driver population, within company time.
Our implementation evaluation to date has revealed that SHIFT is scalable into truck drivers’ mandatory training and appears to be effective in raising drivers’ awareness of benefits of adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours.
Course engagement appears to motivate drivers to want to make healthier lifestyle changes.
Click here to read more about the Lifestyle theme.