Occupational Health Support Needs and Barriers to Aligning Services With Needs Among Highway Traffic Police in Hunan Province, China: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Background Under the Healthy China strategy, occupational health support for frontline police officers is a growing public health concern. Highway traffic police work in open-road settings involving night shifts, continuous standby, and occupational exposure. This study assessed occupational health support needs, barriers to service-need fit, and conditions for integrating wearable devices into health management among highway traffic police in Hunan Province, China. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used. In the quantitative phase, 296 active-duty police officers completed a questionnaire on occupational health support needs and willingness to use wearable devices. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 police officers and analyzed thematically. Findings were integrated to explain the contexts in which needs arose, service-need fit barriers, and conditions for wearable-device-supported health management. Results Respondents reported multiple needs, especially occupational disease prevention training, targeted screening for major disease risks, dynamic health record management, and mental health support. Overall, 263 police officers were willing to accept individualized wearable-device-supported health management if privacy was protected. Four qualitative themes were generated: occupational workload and health depletion; insufficient existing support and difficulties in fitting services to work settings; expectations for precise and continuous health management; and needs for person-centered care and psychosocial support. Wearable-device acceptance depended mainly on privacy protection, low user burden, professional interpretation, abnormality feedback, and a closed-loop service pathway. Conclusions Occupational health support for highway traffic police should move beyond one-time physical examinations and general health education toward context-adapted continuous management with closed-loop feedback. Priorities include occupational exposure protection, night-shift recovery, post-examination follow-up, psychosocial support, and individualized health feedback. Wearable devices may be useful auxiliary tools, but sustained implementation requires privacy protection, low-burden use, professional interpretation, and police-medical collaboration. Trial registration Not applicable. This study was not a clinical trial.</p>