title: Mortality risk in a birth cohort of commuter air carrier and air taxi pilots.
abstract: Commuter and air taxi pilots have higher work-related death rates than most other occupational groups. In this longitudinal study, the authors examined the mortality in a cohort of 3263 commuter and air taxi pilots. With adjustment for age, proportional hazards modeling revealed that termination or downgrading of medical certificates during the 11-year follow-up was associated with a significantly increased risk of overall mortality (relative risk, 2.32; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.43-3.77). Relative to the general population with similar demographic characteristics, commuter air carrier and air taxi pilots had significantly lower overall mortality (standard mortality ratio [SMR], 0.36; 95% CI = 0.32-0.41) and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (SMR, 0.18, 95% CI = 0.15-0.22), but considerably higher mortality from aviation crashes (SMR, 128.88; 95% CI = 6.35-2624.36). The results indicate that the current medical certification system is effective in maintaining a healthy pilot workforce.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. yqiang@jhsph.edu
authors.forename: Yandong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiang
authors.forename: Susan P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Rebok
authors.forename: Melissa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000057:Accident Proneness; D000060:Accidents, Aviation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001359:Aviation; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology