Medical Suspension in Female Army Rotary-Wing Aviators

Introduction: Female aviators with health conditions may face a variety of occupational impacts. Outcomes may include a waiver for continued flight or a permanent suspension, in which flight is no longer possible. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of medical diagnosis among female U.S. Army aviators over a ten year period and identify associations of clinical diagnoses leading to waiver or permanent suspension.

Materials and methods: This study was a secondary data analysis; data were retrieved on 1,282 female, rated aviator patients from an Army Aviation epidemiological database. The archival dataset was composed of a total of 6,856 cases between June 2005 and June 2015. Age ranged from 19 to 58 years. The data were examined in terms of raw ICD-9 diagnostic codes, grouped system diagnoses (diagnosis categories), and occupational consequence. Spearman's rho correlations were used to determine associations between diagnosis, waiver and permanent suspension.

Results: The leading diagnoses were pregnancy, normal delivery, and allergic rhinitis. The systems approach yielded pregnancy, orthopedic disorders, and spinal disorders as the leading diagnosis categories. Leading waivered conditions included spinal, psychiatric, and neurological disorders. In terms of permanent suspension, the leading cause was depression, followed by migraine and post-traumatic stress disorders. In almost all diagnostic groupings, the Spearman's rho correlation coefficients between age and diagnosis were positively related. However, age was not associated with negative occupational outcome (permanent suspension), generally.

Conclusions: A variety of conditions negatively impact the health and occupational status of female aviators, with disparate occupational impacts. Prevalent conditions differed from those reported previously for all aviators in a predominantly male population. The absence of cardiovascular disease is a significant change from 20-30 years ago. Among all medical diagnoses, a minority are responsible for a greater occupational burden.