Investigation and analysis on bone metabolism in aircrew of civil aviation

Objective To explore the effects of aeronautical environmental factors on bone metabolism in aircrew members of civil aviation,we investigated the biochemical markers of bone metabolism and analyzed the correlations between the level of bone metabolism and flight hours in aircrew members of civil aviation.Methods 134 healthy male aircrew members of civil aviation(20~60 years)and 37 healthy male controls(20~60 years)were randomly selected and were divided into three different age groups(20~,30~,40~ years old).Bone glaprotein(BGP)was measured with radioimmunoassay and bone specific alkaline phosphatase(BALP)was measured with enzyme-linked immunoassay.The results were analyzed with t-test,and the correlations between the variables and the flight hours were analyzed with linear correlation.Results The results showed that both BGP and BALP were lower in aircrew members of civil aviation compared with controls.The BGP and BALP were significantly lower in groups aged 20~ and 30~ than in control group respectively(P0.01),while there was no statistical difference between two groups in 40~ group(P0.05).The BGP were significantly correlated with annual flight hours and cumulative flight hours in pilots of civil aviation(r=-0.459,P0.01),and the BALP were significantly correlated with cumulative flight hours in pilots of civil aviation(r=-0.433,P0.01).Conclusions These results suggested that the aeronautical environmental factors may affect the the level of bone metabolism in aircrew members of civil aviation,which was significantly correlated with their flight hours.