BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS OF ACTIVE PILOTS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
Currently, more than 15,000 active airmen are certified to fly with a diagnosis of hypertension. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) blood pressure standards for certification of airmen are considered to be quite liberal; however, recent FAA policy further liberalized medications and dosages allowed in certification of airmen. Since limited information is available concerning the recorded blood pressures of airmen, a systematic sample of active pilots was extracted from automated medical files maintained by the Civil Aeromedical Institute for descriptive purposes as well as to compare with a sample of air traffic controllers, given the continuing interest in the relationship of stress in air traffic control work. Distributions of blood pressure by age were compared by using conventional non-parametric techniques for 10-year age intervals. Data were also compared with general population findings. Prevalence of hypertension is greater in the general United States population than found with any of the groups reported here. Prevalence of borderline and definite hypertension is seen to increase with age for all groups studied. Prevalence of any degree of hypertension is lower for airline pilots than either the all-airman group or the air traffic controller group. Of the three airman groups, prevalence of hypertension is highest for the air traffic controllers, but the influence of more liberal waiver and retention criteria for air traffic controllers is an important reason for the excess.
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
Federal Aviation Administration
Office of Aerospace Medicine, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC United States 20591 -
Authors:
- Booze Jr, C F
- Simcox, L S
- Publication Date: 1984
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 15 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Age groups; Air pilots; Air traffic controllers; Aviation medicine; Blood pressure; Certification; Diseases and medical conditions; Hypertension; Medical records; Statistical analysis
- Subject Areas: Aviation; Data and Information Technology; Education and Training; Safety and Human Factors; Society;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00961800
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: FAA-AM-84-3
- Files: TRIS, USDOT
- Created Date: Aug 8 2003 12:00AM