State anxiety among ship crewmembers

The specific conditions of the environment on board are coasting a serious hesitation to the mental health of the seaman. The aim of the survey is to explore the connection between the temporary anxiety of the seaman and the conditions of the working environment. Some of the physiological and pathological characteristics of the health status and components from the lifestyle of seaman. Respondents were 129 seaman -127 males and 2 females in the age between 44,64+/-10,45 y.o. We found statistically significant correlations between the situational anxiety and different aspects of the psychological functioning of the seaman - the neuro-psychological tension, conflicts and not having enough time. In order to lessen the situational anxiety among seaman there is the need of optimizing the organization of the work in order for them to have more hours of sleep, reducing the amount of overtime work and the extended work shifts, improving the communicational leadership abilities of seaman

Overweight and life style among Bulgarian seafarers

Obesity is a major health problem in many parts of the world. It is a recognized risk factor for many chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, endocrine and metabolic diseases. Obesity among seafarers is not only an obstacle for fulfilling their full working capacity; it is also known as a risk factor for acute complications of chronic diseases that require urgent professional medical care, which is not always available. The frequency of obesity and overweight among 438 Bulgarian seafarers and its link to some health indicators shows that the number of overweight seafarers were 213 (48.4%) and a fifth of them (n = 96 or 21.8%) were obese according to their BMI. There were no reliable significant differences in the allocation of people with overweight and obesity according to the hours of sleep they get, having main meal at dinner or at various levels of physical activities

Hearing loss among ship crewmembers

Modern life in conditions of globalization and increasing freedom of movement of people and goods is a prerequisite for increasing transport activity. As a part of it, water transport meets increased demand with flexible operation of various types of vessels, equipped with modern technologies, materials and systems. Of course, in addition to the accomplished success are some new ecological problems. Some of them are related to noise pollution. The frequencies of hearing disorder are studied among deck, machine and kitchen crew. There are 388 subjects in the study (374 or 98.4% men and 6 or 1.6% women), average age of 43,49 ± 10,7 years. Pure tone audiometry was performed. The results show pronounced professional etiology of hearing loss with peak violations at 4000Hz for machine crew. There are statistically significant correlations of the average hearing loss with age, work experience, body mass index and chronic non-communicable diseases. Additional prophylactic measures are needed to control noise levels on board vessels, medical monitoring of workers in hazardous environments and audiometric functional study of mechanics at least every two years, in accordance with international standards