TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of altitude zone exposure on visuospatial function in military aircrew member
AU - Saputra, Nanda Mardas
AU - Widyahening, Indah Suci
AU - Mulijadi, Herman
AU - Mustopo, Widura Imam
AU - Werdhani, Retno Asti
AU - Ibrahim, Nurhadi
AU - Wibawanti, Retno
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Indonesian Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine Lakespra Dr. Saryanto. This article was presented in the 11th Malaysia Indonesia Brunei Medical Science Conference on Indonesian Medical Education and Research Institute (11th MIB 2019), Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia. We thank the 11th MIB committee, who had supported the peer review and manuscript preparation before submitting to the journal.
Publisher Copyright:
© Nanda Mardas Saputra et al.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Introduction: visuospatial is a type of high-level visual perception necessary for identification, information integration, analysing of visual and spatial forms, details, structures and spatial relation. These functions are required in order to successfully complete aviation-related tasks, such as analysing movement, distance perception, and spatial navigation. The aim of this study is to examine whether hypobaric hypoxia can significantly influence changes in visuospatial function, thus increasing the risk of accident or serious incident during flight operation. Methods: this study is a quasi-experiment of pre-post study including before and after hypobaric hypoxia simulated through an altitude chamber. In this study, 42 military aircrews were exposed to different altitude zones at ground level, 10,000 ft (ft) and 25,000 ft respectively, for five minutes. At each altitude zone, the participants were instructed to complete a clock drawing test as a measurement for visuospatial function. The results were analysed using the McNemar non-parametric test. Results: among the 42 subjects, six show impaired visuospatial function at 10,000 ft and 26 participants show it at 25,000 ft. There were significant increased on the proportion of impaired visuospatial function between the ground level to 10,000 ft (p=0.031), 10,000 to 25,000 ft (p=0.0001) and ground level to 25,000 ft (p=0.0001). Conclusion: hypobaric hypoxia may have a significant influence on visuospatial function, starting from as early as 10,000 ft to 25,000 ft. This decrease of visuospatial function could affect human cognitive performance when flying and increase the risk of aviation accidents.
AB - Introduction: visuospatial is a type of high-level visual perception necessary for identification, information integration, analysing of visual and spatial forms, details, structures and spatial relation. These functions are required in order to successfully complete aviation-related tasks, such as analysing movement, distance perception, and spatial navigation. The aim of this study is to examine whether hypobaric hypoxia can significantly influence changes in visuospatial function, thus increasing the risk of accident or serious incident during flight operation. Methods: this study is a quasi-experiment of pre-post study including before and after hypobaric hypoxia simulated through an altitude chamber. In this study, 42 military aircrews were exposed to different altitude zones at ground level, 10,000 ft (ft) and 25,000 ft respectively, for five minutes. At each altitude zone, the participants were instructed to complete a clock drawing test as a measurement for visuospatial function. The results were analysed using the McNemar non-parametric test. Results: among the 42 subjects, six show impaired visuospatial function at 10,000 ft and 26 participants show it at 25,000 ft. There were significant increased on the proportion of impaired visuospatial function between the ground level to 10,000 ft (p=0.031), 10,000 to 25,000 ft (p=0.0001) and ground level to 25,000 ft (p=0.0001). Conclusion: hypobaric hypoxia may have a significant influence on visuospatial function, starting from as early as 10,000 ft to 25,000 ft. This decrease of visuospatial function could affect human cognitive performance when flying and increase the risk of aviation accidents.
KW - aircrew
KW - altitude
KW - aviation
KW - cognitive
KW - hypoxia
KW - performance
KW - Visuospatial
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131290235&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.11604/pamj.2022.41.235.22274
DO - 10.11604/pamj.2022.41.235.22274
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131290235
SN - 1937-8688
VL - 41
JO - Pan African Medical Journal
JF - Pan African Medical Journal
M1 - 235
ER -