Freight ships, unlike most other work environments, are where employees also live, typically for months at a time. Yet the quality of vessel accommodation, critical to seafarers' wellbeing, seems to have deteriorated during the past five years, even in newbuildings, a new study has found. The Cardifff University Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) survey Seafarer Accommodation on Contemporary Cargo Ships found many onboard factors bearing on seafarers' psychological and general health were unsatisfactory. More than 1,500 SIRC questionnaires completed by seafarers were analysed for the study. The average age of respondents was 33 and just 2% were women; 39% were Filipino, 32% Chinese, 15% Indian, 12% UK nationals, and the remainder comprised other nationalities. Of the total, 24% were senior officers, 42% junior officers, and 34% ratings.
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