Health, Self-Care and the Offshore Workforce - Opportunities for Behaviour Change Interventions, an Epidemiological Survey

Abstract: Introduction: The high risk nature of offshore work and inherent occupational hazards necessitate that offshoreworkers engage in behaviours that promote health and wellbeing. The survey aimed to assess offshore workers’ health,self-care, quality of life and mental wellbeing, and to identify associated areas requiring behaviour change.Methods: Offshore workers attending a course at a training facility in Scotland were invited to complete aquestionnaire comprising 11 validated measures of health, self-care, quality of life and mental wellbeing.Results: A total of 352 offshore workers responded (completion rate 45.4%). Almost three-quarters were identified asoverweight/obese (n=236, 74.4%). Median scores for SF-8 quality of life (physical=56.1, interquartile range (IQR)=4.8;mental=54.7, IQR=8.1) and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scales were positive (52.0, IQR=9.0). The largest12341, 423 proportion of participants’ scores across alcohol use (n=187, 53.4%) and sleep quality (n=229, 67.0%) domains werecategorised as negative. The median number of self-care domains for which offshore workers scored negatively was 3(IQR=2.0).Conclusions: There are key areas relating to the health, quality of life, mental wellbeing and self-care of the offshoreworkforce that warrant addressing.