University of the Western Cape’s doctoral research proves impactful on the health of Cape Town taxi drivers
Sekgala has now completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Public Health) at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences.
In his research, he focused on Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) which is a variety of health conditions that occur together and, in so doing, increase the risk of a stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.
In his research, Sekgala concludes that of the 235 taxi drivers surveyed, 73.5 percent eat takeaway food (pizza, burgers, chicken and fish parcels) every day.
Furthermore, 37.0 percent of the surveyed taxi drivers eat fried meat and fish dishes (chips, vetkoek, fried chicken, fried fish) every day, and 49.8 percent drink sugar sweetened beverages (gas/fizzy cold drinks) and reconstituted drinks daily.
Sekgala said: “These results are corroborated by both national and international literature that shows that individuals who are in the long-duration driving occupation, including taxi drivers, have a high likelihood of developing metabolic disorders compared to other professionals such as industrial and office workers. In addition, these studies also identified age, driving duration, and driving experience as factors that accelerate the onset of these metabolic diseases.
“Among these important determinants of MetS, we showed that sociodemographic factors such as age and high experience in taxi driving are significantly associated with MetS risk and its components. Moreover, lifestyle factors such as fewer sleeping hours, smoking many cigarettes each day, alcohol, sugar sweetened beverages, spending a lot of money on street food, and being sedentary impacted the minibus taxi drivers’ metabolic health. These results have significant public health implications, as policymakers need to adopt evidence-based strategies to encourage a healthy lifestyle among South African men, especially minibus taxi drivers.”
Sekgala grew up in Polokwane and did his BSc Science, Honours and Master’s degrees at the University of Limpopo. While working at the HSRC as a Master’s Research intern he met up with a colleague who also lectured at UWC. Professor Zandile June-Rose Mchiza encouraged him to continue his studies, and even became his supervisor.
Sekgala admitted that there were challenges when interviewing the taxi drivers as the majority did not understand the process of academic research or its value.
“When you approach them and explain you’re doing your research, you are really speaking a foreign language to them. What was interesting though is that even though they could not understand research, they were very interested in knowing their health status.”
Inadvertently, his research became health check-ups for drivers. “The other component of my research was for referral. When I conduct the data collection or during the measurement, especially the higher blood pressure and the sugar diabetes, and I find the abnormal values, I will give them referral letters and then they go to see a doctor for further investigations.”
Sekgala explained that his research journey will continue as he is seeking funding to develop tailored interventions to reduce metabolic syndrome among taxi drivers.