Cargando…

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Grout, Andrea, Leggat, Peter A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2021
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
_version_ 1784852491230248960
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