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Occupational health hazards and injuries are an alarming concern among traffic police. Occupational injuries affect the physical, social, and mental well-being of police personnel, which has various public health implications. The evaluation of occupational health and safety policies and regulations for the traffic police relies on their occupational exposure and health hazard statistics and assessments.
The purpose of this scoping review is to systematically explore, analyze, and describe relevant findings from all studies conducted on occupational exposure and associated health hazards among traffic police in South Asia.
The scoping review will include studies that assessed occupational exposure prevalence, types, knowledge, predisposing factors, and prevention strategies. Databases like PubMed, Springer Link, EBSCOhost, the Cochrane library, and Google Scholar will be used to obtain both published and unpublished works in the English language. Relevant gray literature, including governmental and international organization reports, will be examined. After removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts, the full-text analysis will begin. Arksey and O'Malley's methodology framework for scoping reviews will be followed. According to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews, the scoping review will be reported. Two qualified reviewers will independently conduct article screening and data extraction. The extracted data will then be tabulated and accompanied by an explanation to facilitate comprehension. We will extract relevant article results using NVivo (version 10; QSR International) and thematic content analysis. The included articles will be evaluated using the mixed methods appraisal tool (version 2018).
The scoping review will provide insight into how occupational health hazards affect traffic police physically and psychologically in South Asia. The theoretical conceptualization of different aspects of the occupational health of traffic police will emphasize future studies in this region, which will inform policy makers to revise their occupational health and safety policies and principles. It will have implications for taking necessary preventive measures in the future to reduce occupational injuries and fatalities resulting from different types of occupational hazards.
This scoping review will describe the overview of occupational hazards among South Asian traffic police and will provide insights for policy makers to implement changes and to adapt new strategies.
PRR1-10.2196/42239
Where there is unplanned urbanization, occupational- or work-related health risks related to environmental pollution have become a serious public health problem [
Traffic police perform crucial actions in maintaining the country's law, regulations, order, and safety-security. They are actively involved in managing the city's commutation system. They ensure that automobiles may travel freely on the road. Their responsibilities include controlling traffic on cross streets, settling roadside traffic disputes, and collecting penalties for breaking traffic regulations. Traffic police officers are continuously compromising their health for the general public and are more exposed to occupational hazards. Since occupation is a major determinant of health, traffic police personnel face multiple occupational hazards, and it has become a serious public health concern. Thus, duty-bound personnel like traffic police are continuously exposed to occupational health risks and hazards and experience severe related health problems [
Traffic police encounter a variety of occupational dangers, as one’s occupation is a major driver of one’s health [
While dealing with heavy traffic congestion, traffic police become mentally and physically exhausted, making them susceptible to physical and mental stress, increasing with the duration of employment [
Cardiovascular disease and cancer risk are also linked to traffic pollution [
Many traffic police officers experience work-related musculoskeletal diseases, particularly in the lower back, neck, and shoulders [
This implies that traffic enforcers' occupational health and safety (OHS) is a critical public health issue, especially in South Asian countries.
Occupational health hazards may be preventable, and the majority of people are ignorant of them. As a consequence, a safety culture must be developed in the workplace. Occupational infection prevention and control training programs are developed at a local level by hospitals or at a national level by Ministry of Health and Professional Organizations in the United States and Australia [
In India, regarding OHS policies, key activities include reviews of the labor administration system at the national and state levels, and conduction of workshops to promote ratification of the International Labour Organization conventions on OHS [
Therefore, directly or indirectly, traffic police face a wide variety of health hazards at their working environment, namely, physical, biological, psychosocial, chemical, and ergonomic hazards. Thus, duty-bound personnel like traffic police get exposed to various occupational hazards with different work-related injuries or diseases that have profound public health implications. These identified impacts pose severe health and safety problems and require inculcating a safety culture in the workplace. After a careful search, limited studies were found focusing on occupational health hazards among traffic police officers in South Asian countries. However, a few relevant studies regarding OHS practices, and guidelines for traffic police officers were conducted in this region. Hence, the conduct of this scoping review is imperative to explore the knowledge gaps, prevalence, possible risk factors, and control or preventive measures of occupational health hazards among traffic police in South Asia.
The suggested scoping review will include studies conducted on the occupational health of traffic police. It will cover all aspects of health, including the physical, psychological, social, and environmental components in this vulnerable group related to their occupational exposure. Furthermore, risk factors causing these exposures, such as insufficient knowledge and preventive measure, will be explored. This study is directed to come up with a complete evaluation of the evidence on occupational hazards among South Asian traffic police.
We will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, use reliable tools to assess study quality [
This scoping review will synthesize all available information by systematic research, selection, and amalgam of current knowledge. The conceptual framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley [
To assess the quality of the articles incorporated in the review, the mixed methods assessment tool, 2018 will be used [
Study selection process.
Studies will be selected according to the population, exposure, and outcomes framework outlined below (
Traffic police in South Asia
Occupational exposure (air pollution, noise pollution, exposure to chemical substances, and negative workplace exposure)
Types
Physical hazards: noise-induced hearing loss
Chemical hazards: cancer
Biological hazards: blood-borne diseases
Ergonomic hazards: musculoskeletal disorders
Organizational hazards: burnout
Psychological hazards: anxiety, depression, insomnia, and posttraumatic stress disorder
Prevalence
Level of knowledge
Predisposing factors or risk factors
Preventive measures
Usage of preventive measures
Overall, the research questions are as follows: what is the current status of occupational health hazards among South Asian traffic police? Based on this research question, the following questions are specified: (1) what kind of occupational health hazards do traffic police face, and how common are they? (2) What are the traffic police’s understanding or knowledge of the occupational hazards related to their jobs? (3) What are the potential risk factors that put traffic police at risk for health hazards related to their occupation? (4) What are the preventive strategies accessible for use by traffic police to avoid occupational health outcomes? (5) What preventive steps the traffic police might use to avoid workplace health risks or hazards? (6) Is there awareness of various protocols for occupation-related injuries or chronic disease management?
The scoping review also aims to compare patterns, prevalence, and characteristics of occupational hazards of South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) in which there will be a search for common patterns in regard to occupational health hazards as well as comparison of patterns, characteristics, and prevalence of occupational health hazards by country. We assume that there could be a common culture, common characteristics of the occupational health hazards among the traffic police, and even there could be a similar pattern of environmental exposures as these countries belong to the same subcontinent. On the other hand, there could be variance in prevalence, national policies, and preventive measures in different countries of South Asia. Moreover, most of the studies were conducted on various types of occupational health hazards among traffic police in different countries of South Asia. There are very few studies, which are focused on occupational health hazards of traffic police, thus generalizing findings for South Asia. Therefore, there will be an inclusion of all types of studies conducted on occupational health hazards of traffic police in countries as well as a whole of South Asia to identify the root causes behind prevalent occupational health hazards and also to have a clear picture on the emergence of tailoring any program for traffic police to prevent occupational health hazards.
Another goal of this review is to discover a wide range of literature including published studies, policy reports, newspapers, gray literature, and so on. The following electronic databases will be searched for keywords: PubMed, Springer Link, as well as EBSCO host, the Cochrane library, and Google Scholar (
The review approach will consist of two screening steps: (1) A title and an abstract and (2) a full-text evaluation.
Two nonpartisan investigators will review the titles and abstracts of manuscripts to determine whether or not they meet the minimal set of inclusion as well as exclusion criteria.
Inclusion criteria are as follows: (1) studies carried on traffic police; (2) studies conducted on job-related exposures to biological and nonbiological hazards, prevalence, different kinds of hazards, risk factors, knowledge levels, and preventative methods; (3) studies carried out in South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka); (4) studies that are based on cohorts, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, randomized controlled trials, and nonrandomized controlled trials; and (6) scholarly work published in English as well as in other languages with an English translation.
Exclusion criteria are as follows: (1) studies that did not focus on traffic police and occupational health hazards, (2) studies published in languages other than English, and (3) qualitative studies.
Before the actual review of article abstracts, the minimal inclusion and exclusion criteria will be evaluated on a sample of abstracts to make sure they are robust enough to include any studies on occupational exposures among traffic police in South Asia. Articles matching the inclusion criteria will be chosen for a full-text review. Based on the sample review, the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be finalized. In the subsequent step of the process, out of 2 investigators, each will conduct their own independent evaluation of the complete texts of the publication using the study criteria. If reviewers disagree with any article, it will be given a second look, and any further disagreements about the article's eligibility will be discussed with a third investigator. In order to provide a comprehensive record of the review procedure, a flowchart known as the PRISMA-ScR [
The relevant data will be drawn out using an extraction form. Specific details such as year of publication with date, study design, population, study aim, study title, study setting, intervention, proportions, result of the study, key findings pertinent to the study questions, and observations will be extracted and will be used to organize the data of all analyzed studies using a codebook. An extraction sample is provided in
Name of author, date of publication
Study title
Objective of the study or research question
Population
Sample size
Characteristics of participants
Geography of the study
Study design
Recruitment setting
Sampling strategy
Most relevant and significant findings
Conclusions
The objective or goal of the scoping review is to outline the existing evidence and give a comprehensive summary of occupational health risks and hazards among traffic police in South Asian countries. It will not only incorporate the prevalence of hazards but also ensure the usage of preventive strategies. It will also serve as a guide to identify the risk factors. According to Arksey and O’Malley methodology [
For the quality evaluation, evidence from various research will be evaluated. This will be performed to confirm that the research strategy is suitable for the study's objectives and to limit the likelihood of bias. The 2018 version of the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research) will be applied to evaluate the standard of the study's chosen articles [
This scoping review requires no ethical approval as it does not involve human subjects; yet, it might have some limitations. Limited studies are conducted regarding this topic in this region. Again, this review will only consider published and gray literature written in English.
A preliminary search of the primary databases has been conducted. Electronic database searches will be completed by October 2022. Disseminating the findings from this scoping review in a scientific peer-reviewed journal has been envisaged. It is anticipated that the theoretical conceptualization on different aspects of occupational health of traffic police will emphasize future studies in this region, which will inform policy makers to revise their OHS policies and principles. Additionally, it will have implications on taking necessary preventive measures in the future to reduce occupational injuries and fatalities resulting from different types of occupational hazards.
The scoping review aims to systematically explore, analyze, and describe relevant findings on occupational exposures and their associated health hazards among traffic police in South Asia. However, a few relevant studies regarding OHS practices, policies, and guidelines for traffic policies were conducted in this region. Hence, this scoping review will explore the knowledge gaps, prevalence, possible risk factors, and control or preventive measures of occupational health hazards among traffic police in South Asia.
The scoping review will outline and perform a detailed discussion on occupational exposure focusing on the physical, psychological, and environmental aspects of health affecting traffic police in the South Asian region. The extracted data will be provided in a tabular format and a descriptive summary will explain how the results relate to the scoping review's goals and objectives. The scoping study is expected to shed light on the information and evidence that are currently available on occupational exposure and health hazards for South Asian traffic police, and the summary will also be evaluated, interpreted, and compared considering the existing literature. The review may have far-reaching implications for future projections of occupational exposures and for revising the current policy if needed. It may also reveal different research areas into multiple aspects of occupational exposure and occupational health hazards among traffic police in South Asia.
The findings of this scoping review will be impactful as it will explore in detail the health hazards associated with this profession, and an evidence-based review of the current status of occupational health safety policy and preventive measures as well as interventions will be explained.
The study will explain the need for occupational safety and health strategy for traffic police with the overall vision of providing a healthy, safe, and productive working environment, which should be implemented by all the relevant agencies such as government, industry, and general public. This study will inform policy as well as management principles and interventions. When a strategy on the OHS of traffic police is well developed and implemented, there will be effectiveness on how the traffic police keep themselves safe from occupational health hazards.
This scoping review will describe its findings in accordance with the Preferred Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Five electronic databases and gray literature, such as unpublished theses and dissertations will be used as a primary source of relevant studies. All articles will be screened by 2 independent researchers using a minimum set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study will evaluate the quality of included studies in accordance with an established MMAT. However, there is a possibility to overlook some relevant studies as only English-language publications will be considered and reviewed.
Data search strategy.
mixed methods appraisal tool
noise-induced hearing loss
occupational health and safety
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis extension for scoping reviews
IJ, MASK, and AM conceptualized the study and prepared the draft proposal. IJ, AM, MAH, and SS contributed to the development of the background, the research questions, and study methods. IJ, MASK, MH, and MUR planned the output of the research and contributed meaningfully to the drafting and editing. SS, MUR, MMAH, and MHN aided in developing the research questions and critically reviewed the study methods. IJ, AM, MASK, MDHH, MHN, and MAH wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
None declared.