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Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19
Aircrew fitness-to-fly is among the elements that make aviation the safest form of long-distance transport. The health of cabin crew is a crucial determinant in carrying out safety-related duties. ‘Fitness-to-fly’ is associated with defined workplace conditions, for which airlines have a legal duty...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Ltd.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9760509/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33450405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.101973 |
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author | Grout, Andrea Leggat, Peter A. |
author_facet | Grout, Andrea Leggat, Peter A. |
author_sort | Grout, Andrea |
collection | PubMed |
description | Aircrew fitness-to-fly is among the elements that make aviation the safest form of long-distance transport. The health of cabin crew is a crucial determinant in carrying out safety-related duties. ‘Fitness-to-fly’ is associated with defined workplace conditions, for which airlines have a legal duty to ensure fitness for employment. We explored the literature on fitness-to-fly to obtain a pragmatic assessment of the challenges for aeromedical examinations. Regulations promulgated by aviation regulatory authorities and airline-internal policies have similar status and meaning, yet there is no harmonised approach internationally, and an inability to conform periodic medical assessments to actual operational fitness. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to better understand fitness-to-fly criteria. Fitness-to-fly measures are mainly based on self-reported data and there is a need for a ‘safety’ factor for self-reports. Aeromedical evaluations should evolve from meeting medical standards to include pandemics as an element of the overall risk of aircraft operations. Re-evaluating criteria for fitness-to-fly assessment will further the goal of linking research to the actual needs of public health decisionmakers. If airlines are to resume operations at pre-pandemic levels, they must demonstrate to the public and public health agencies that fitness-to-fly assessment is appropriate and effective. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9760509 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97605092022-12-19 Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 Grout, Andrea Leggat, Peter A. Travel Med Infect Dis Commentary Aircrew fitness-to-fly is among the elements that make aviation the safest form of long-distance transport. The health of cabin crew is a crucial determinant in carrying out safety-related duties. ‘Fitness-to-fly’ is associated with defined workplace conditions, for which airlines have a legal duty to ensure fitness for employment. We explored the literature on fitness-to-fly to obtain a pragmatic assessment of the challenges for aeromedical examinations. Regulations promulgated by aviation regulatory authorities and airline-internal policies have similar status and meaning, yet there is no harmonised approach internationally, and an inability to conform periodic medical assessments to actual operational fitness. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to better understand fitness-to-fly criteria. Fitness-to-fly measures are mainly based on self-reported data and there is a need for a ‘safety’ factor for self-reports. Aeromedical evaluations should evolve from meeting medical standards to include pandemics as an element of the overall risk of aircraft operations. Re-evaluating criteria for fitness-to-fly assessment will further the goal of linking research to the actual needs of public health decisionmakers. If airlines are to resume operations at pre-pandemic levels, they must demonstrate to the public and public health agencies that fitness-to-fly assessment is appropriate and effective. Elsevier Ltd. 2021 2021-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9760509/ /pubmed/33450405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.101973 Text en © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Commentary Grout, Andrea Leggat, Peter A. Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title | Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title_full | Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title_fullStr | Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title_full_unstemmed | Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title_short | Cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: Opportunities for re-evaluation amid COVID-19 |
title_sort | cabin crew health and fitness-to-fly: opportunities for re-evaluation amid covid-19 |
topic | Commentary |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9760509/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33450405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.101973 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT groutandrea cabincrewhealthandfitnesstoflyopportunitiesforreevaluationamidcovid19 AT leggatpetera cabincrewhealthandfitnesstoflyopportunitiesforreevaluationamidcovid19 |