Healthy Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Sleep Hygiene to Promote Cardiometabolic Health of Airline Pilots: A Narrative Review

BACKGROUND: Airline pilots experience unique occupational demands that may contribute to adverse physical and psychological health outcomes. Epidemiological reports have shown a substantial prevalence of cardiometabolic health risk factors including excessive body weight, elevated blood pressure, poor lifestyle behaviors, and psychological fatigue. Achieving health guidelines for lifestyle behavior nutrition, physical activity, and sleep are protective factors against the development of noncommunicable diseases and may mitigate the unfavorable occupational demands of airline pilots. This narrative review examines occupational characteristics for sleep, nutrition, and physical activity and outlines evidence-based strategies to inform health behavior interventions to mitigate cardiometabolic health risk factors among airline pilots. METHODS: Literature sources published between 1990 and 2022 were identified through electronic searches in PubMed, MEDLINE (via OvidSP), PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases, and a review of official reports and documents from regulatory authorities pertaining to aviation medicine and public health was conducted. The literature search strategy comprised key search terms relating to airline pilots, health behaviors, and cardiometabolic health. The inclusion criteria for literature sources were peer-reviewed human studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and reports or documents published by regulatory bodies. RESULTS: The results of the review show occupational factors influencing nutrition, sleep, and physical activity behaviors and delineate evident occupational disruptions to these lifestyle behaviors. Evidence from clinical trials demonstrates the efficacy of nutrition, sleep, and physical activity interventions for enhancing the cardiometabolic health of airline pilots. CONCLUSION: This narrative review suggests that implementing evidence-based interventions focused on nutrition, physical activity, and sleep could help mitigate cardiometabolic health risk factors among airline pilots, who are particularly susceptible to adverse health outcomes due to unique occupational demands.