Relationship of age and simulated flight performance.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the relationship between age and aviator performance on a flight simulator.


METHODS
A cross-sectional observational study.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 100 aviators aged 50 to 69 (mean = 58).


METHODS
Pilots were tested on a Frasca 141 flight simulator (Urbana, IL), linked to a UNIX-based IRIS 4D computer (Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA), which both generated graphics of the environment in which the pilots flew and collected data concerning the aircraft's flight conditions.


RESULTS
We found that increased age was significantly associated with decreased aviator performance on a flight simulator.


CONCLUSIONS
Although there was a significant relationship between increased age and decreased aviator performance, age explained 22% or less of the variance of performance on different flight tasks; hence, other factors are also important in explaining the performance of older pilots.
Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Palo Alto, California, USA. yesavage@stanford.edu
J A
JA
Yesavage
J L
JL
Taylor
M S
MS
Mumenthaler
A
A
Noda
R
R
O'Hara
D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001359:Aviation; D003071:Cognition; D003142:Communication; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012044:Regression Analysis