Urinalysis drug testing within a civilian pilot training program: did attitudes change during the 1990's?

BACKGROUND: Attitudes toward fairness and effectiveness of mandatory drug testing vary within pilot populations (4,8) as well as other populations (3). This descriptive-correlational study examined civilian student pilots' attitudes toward urinalysis (UA) drug testing over a 10-yr period and the pilots' opinions regarding effectiveness, adequacy, and fairness of the testing as a deterrent for substance abuse among pilots. METHODS: A sample of three different groups of civilian aviation students (n = 314), consisted of 103 pilots studied prior to implementing a mandatory drug testing program, 113 pilots studied 1 yr after implementing a mandatory drug testing program, and 98 pilots studied 6 yr into a mandatory drug testing program. A 14-item questionnaire (alpha = 0.74), indicating degrees of agreement, was completed by the student pilots who were enrolled in a large civilian pilot training program. RESULTS: There were no significant differences among the study pilots' feelings related to anxiety of drug testing when comparing non-mandatory and mandatory groups over time. The pilots continue to believe that alcohol use by pilots within this civilian piloting training program has decreased since testing was mandated and that drug use also showed a significant decrease (p = 0.01), although not as significant (p = 0.0001) as the decrease in alcohol use. CONCLUSION: The study showed that alcohol and drug testing is more generally accepted by the pilots in the study as the decade of the 1990s came to a close.

Attitudes toward urinalysis drug testing within a civilian pilot training program.

BACKGROUND: This descriptive-correlational study examined civilian student pilots' attitudes toward urinalysis (UA) drug testing and the pilots' opinions regarding effectiveness, adequacy, and fairness of the method as a deterrent for substance abuse among pilots. HYPOTHESIS: There will be significant differences among attitudes of professional aviation student pilots in mandatory and nonmandatory UA drug tested sections of a flight program when considering the pilots' flight hours, ages, gender, anxiety produced by UA drug testing, opinions on drug and alcohol abuse by pilots on the flight schedule, and their attitudes toward the testing process. METHODS: A Likert-scaled questionnaire was completed by the student pilots who were enrolled in mandatory and nonmandatory UA drug tested class sections within a large civilian aviation flight program. RESULTS: Pilots felt mandatory UA testing was less anxiety-producing (t = 2.25, p < 0.05) than the students in nonmandatory tested flight classes. The pilots in nonmandatory tested sections felt more strongly (t = 2.55, p < 0.01) that drug use existed among pilots on the flight schedule than mandatorily tested pilots. Significant intercorrelations (p < 0.05) emerged among the variables age, gender, flying hours, randomization of UA testing, and attitudes toward the UA testing process and its' effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, mandatory UA drug testing appeared to decrease substance abuse among pilots on the flight schedule.

The relationship of diet to airsickness.

This descriptive, correlational study examined meal frequencies and dietary intakes as they related to airsickness in a population of novice civilian pilots. Food and nutrient intakes and dietary patterns of pilots prior to flight were measured for association with airsickness. A 24-h dietary recall was used in recording dietary intake and meal frequencies during a typical flight day. Correlation analysis was used to determine relationships between dietary intake and airsickness. Of the female pilots, 75% experienced airsickness; and 24% of the male pilots experienced it. Female pilots' mean 24 h dietary intakes of vitamins A, C, and iron were low. The findings indicate eating high sodium foods (r = 0.33, p = 0.02) such as preserved meats, corn chips and potato chips, and eating foods high in thiamin (r = 0.35, p = 0.01) like pork, beef, eggs, or fish correlated significantly with increased airsickness. Consumption of foods high in protein such as milk products, cheeses and preserved meat by the males correlated significantly (r = 0.28, p = 0.05) with increased airsickness. The frequency of meals eaten during the day also correlated with increased airsickness. Of the airsick pilots, 75% consumed three or more meals in the previous 24 h, as compared to 41% of the nonairsick pilots. Higher density foods (more kilocalories) also increased the airsickness occurrences of both the male and female pilots.

Assessing for preflight predictors of airsickness.

A total of 57 randomly selected male and female student pilots from an Introduction to Aviation private pilot course in a large aviation program of a midwestern university completed this study. These pilots were assessed for health status and surveyed for airsickness and associated symptoms by use of an Airsickness Inventory Questionnaire developed by the authors and a modified Self-Rating Anxiety Status Inventory Scale tool developed by W. K. Zung. Correlational analyses of scores from self-report inventories were used to evaluate strength of relationships between airsickness and anxiety. Multiple linear stepwise regressions were computed on variables of correlated symptoms for predictiveness of airsickness. Results of the study indicated 28.1% of pilots exhibited symptoms of airsickness. Significant correlations indicated moderate relationships between airsickness and the following preflight indicators: nausea and vomiting, tremors, face flushing, nightmares, urinary frequency, excessive nervousness, and anxiety index.

Anxiety reduction in hospitalized schizophrenics through thermal biofeedback and relaxation training.

Biofeedback training and muscular relaxation have therapeutic value for general reduction of tension in non-patient and patient populations. The present study investigated the efficacy of thermal biofeedback and relaxation as adjunctive treatments to antipsychotic medication for reduction of anxiety in 40 hospitalized schizophrenics who were randomly assigned assigned to four groups: biofeedback, relaxation, biofeedback and relaxation, and minimal treatment control. Significant reduction in anxiety followed treatment, but there were no between-group differences. One-year follow-up and post boc analyses indicated a subgroup of "anxious" schizophrenics who showed substantial reduction in anxiety following treatment with biofeedback and relaxation.