Hoffman William R, Aden James K, Barbera Daniel, Tvaryanas Anthony
Department of Neurology, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78204, USA.
Department of Graduate Medical Education, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78204, USA.
Mil Med. 2023 Mar 20;188(3-4):e446-e450. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usac311.
U.S. military pilots are required to meet certain medical standards in order to maintain an active flying status. Military pilots face potential temporary or permanent loss of flying privileges in the setting of a new condition or symptom that does not meet required standards, which could result in negative social and occupational repercussions for the pilot. For this reason, it has been proposed that U.S. military pilots participate in health care avoidance behavior, but little evidence exists to characterize such a trend in this population.
We conducted a non-probabilistic Internet survey of the general population of U.S. pilots from November 1, 2019 through August 1, 2021. The current study is a sub-analysis of military pilots.
A total of 4,320 pilots answered the informed consent question, and 264 selected one military pilot type and were included in this sub-analysis. There were 72% of military pilots who reported a history of health care avoidance behavior (n = 190), and no statistical difference was found between age groups, gender, and military pilot types. There were 55.5% of pilots who reported a history of seeking informal medical care (n = 147), 33.7% of pilots who have flown despite a new symptom they felt required medical evaluation, 42.5% of pilots who reported withholding information on aeromedical screening (n = 111), and 11.4% of pilots who reported a history of undisclosed prescription medication use (n = 30).
U.S. military pilots may participate in health care avoidance behavior because of fear for loss of flying status.
美国军事飞行员必须达到一定的医疗标准，以保持现役飞行状态。在出现不符合要求标准的新病症或症状时，军事飞行员可能会面临飞行特权暂时或永久丧失的情况，这可能会给飞行员带来负面的社会和职业影响。因此，有人提出美国军事飞行员会采取避免就医行为，但几乎没有证据表明这一人群存在这种趋势。
我们于2019年11月1日至2021年8月1日对美国飞行员总体进行了一项非概率性的互联网调查。本研究是对军事飞行员的子分析。
共有4320名飞行员回答了知情同意问题，264人选择了一种军事飞行员类型并纳入本次子分析。72%的军事飞行员报告有避免就医行为史（n = 190），不同年龄组、性别和军事飞行员类型之间未发现统计学差异。55.5%的飞行员报告有寻求非正式医疗护理的历史（n = 147），33.7%的飞行员在出现他们认为需要医学评估的新症状后仍继续飞行，42.5%的飞行员报告在航空医学筛查中隐瞒信息（n = 111），11.4%的飞行员报告有未披露的处方药使用史（n = 30）。
美国军事飞行员可能因担心失去飞行状态而采取避免就医行为。
