The effect of biological rhythms and personality traits on the incidence of unsafe behaviors among bus drivers in Shiraz, Iran

BACKGROUND Unsafe behaviors are main causes of accidents mostly influenced by personal characteristics, social environment and also individual biorhythm cycles. This study was carried out to find out whether personality traits and biorhythm could affect the incidence of unsafe behaviors among city bus drivers. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 224 bus drivers in Shiraz, Iran, 2014. The data were collected using NEO personality traits questionnaire. Also, a self-constructed checklist was used to investigate the drivers' unsafe behaviors. Information on drivers' biorhythm was analyzed by Natural Biorhythm software version 3.2. The relationship between demographic characteristics, personality traits and biorhythm were examined by T-Test, One-way ANOVA, correlation coefficient and Chi square tests. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to investigate the factors influencing the incidence of unsafe behaviors. RESULTS 28.6% of participants have experienced critical days in their biorhythm cycles. Also the mean percentage of unsafe behavior was 54.08 ± 11.91 among the subjects of the study.Significantly negative correlations were observed between each personality factor and the percentage of unsafe behaviors. Also, there was a significant relationship between percentage of derivers' unsafe behaviors and the general cycle of biorhythm (having at least one critical day in each of the cycles). CONCLUSIONS Taking the measures including selection of low-risk traffic routes in the critical days and considering the personality traits at the time of employment could be effective in reducing the unsafe behaviors and accidents.