The health and wellbeing of offshore workers: a narrative review of the published literature

Recent developments within the offshore industry have highlighted the role that health and wellbeing plays in ensuring the safety and longevity of the offshore workforce. Developing an understanding of the overall health and wellbeing of offshore workers could aid future developments. This narrative review aims to identify and synthesise the relevant published literature on offshore health and wellbeing. The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, PsycArticles, and Web of Science databases were searched with publication search dates limited from January 1994 to November 2014. Twenty-six studies were identified and covered aspects of occupational stress; mental wellbeing; body mass index; diet; physical activity; musculoskeletal disorder; smoking; alcohol and drug use; shift work amongst offshore workers.

This narrative review has highlighted a lack of high quality and relevant research. There is a particular need to research workers’ participation in self care activities and the resultant influence of domains on health and well being.