An Assessment of Aviation Accident Risk of Aphakic Civil Airmen By Class of Medical Certificate Held and by Age: 1982-1985.
Abstract
In the FY-92/93 Annual Program Guidance and Current Policy Statement, the Federal Air Surgeon requested continued investigation of surgical procedures and ophthalmic devices, such as cataract surgery and artificial lens implants, as to their relevance to medical certification. No previous statistical studies of the aviation accident risk of civil airmen with aphakia and intraocular lens (lOL) by class of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airman medical certificate held have been performed. We evaluated the accident frequency of aphakic airmen (with or without lOL) by effective class of medical certificate (first-, second-, third-class) and by age (< 50 and > 50 years) versus similarly stratified non-aphakic airman populations for the period 1982-85. Medical records were evaluated for all certified airmen during the study period who were carrying FAA-specific pathology codes for aphakia and/or artificial lens implant. Aviation accident and active airman population frequencies were obtained from FAA databases and used to calculate accident rates. Third-class total aphakia and lOL airmen and third-class aphakia and lOL airmen < 50 years of age had significantly higher (p < .05) accident rates compared to corresponding non-aphakic airman populations. Our findings suggest that medical impairment may be an important risk factor for aviation accidents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA293407
Entities
People
- Kathryn J. Wood
- Ronald W. Montgomery
- Van B. Nakagawara
Organizations
- Federal Aviation Administration