Prevalence of and Trends for Dyslipidemia among Pilots from one Airline in China

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Civil Aviation Medicine Center, Civil Aviation Administration of China (Civil Aviation General Hospital), Beijing 100123, China

2 Air China, Southwest Branch, Chengdu 610202, China

3 Department of Clinical Laboratory, Civil Aviation General Hospital (Peking University Civil Aviation School of Clinical Medicine), Beijing 100123, China

10.15171/ijtmgh.2019.05

Abstract

Introduction: Most of previous studies on dyslipidemia among pilots were cross-sectional surveys which cannot explore the temporal trend of dyslipidemia, and these studies were normally conducted at least five years ago. In addition, studies focusing on pilots in Southwest China are scarce. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of and trends in dyslipidemia among pilots from an airline in Southwest China.
Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of adverse concentrations of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) among all pilots from one airline in Southwest China in 2015. Analyses of linear trends in age-adjusted prevalence of dyslipidemia were conducted overall across a 3-year period (2013, 2014, and 2015).
Results: In 2015, 3.4% of participating pilots had a high TC concentration, 16.4% had a high TG concentration, 2.6% had a high LDL-C concentration, 25.1% had a low HDL-C concentration, and 33.1% had dyslipidemia. Between 2013 and 2015, there were decreasing linear trends in age-adjusted prevalence of high TG (32% vs. 19.9%; P < 0.001) and dyslipidemia (51.9% vs. 38.4%; P < 0.001). During this 3-year period, declining trends were also observed in age-adjusted prevalence of LDL-C (10.0% vs. 4%; P < 0.001) and HDL-C (33.2% vs. 28.3%; P = 0.015). However, there was no change from 2013 to 2015 in age-adjusted prevalence of high TC (2.8% vs. 5.0%; P = 0.168).
Conclusion: From 2013 to 2015, there were favorable trends in the prevalence of high TG, low HDL-C, high LDL-C, and overall dyslipidemia but no significant change in high TC among pilots from one airline in southwest China. The reasons for these trends need to be further explored.

Keywords

References

  1. Kit BK, Kuklina E, Carroll MD, Ostchega Y, Freedman DS, Ogden CL. Prevalence of and trends in dyslipidemia and blood pressure among US children and adolescents, 1999-2012. JAMA Pediatr. 2015;169(3):272-279. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.3216.
  2. Stamler J, Wentworth D, Neaton JD. Is relationship between serum cholesterol and risk of premature death from coronary heart disease continuous and graded? Findings in 356,222 primary screenees of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT). JAMA. 1986;256(20):2823-2828. doi:10.1001/jama.1986.03380200061022.
  3. Assmann G, Schulte H, Funke H, von Eckardstein A. The emergence of triglycerides as a significant independent risk factor in coronary artery disease. Eur Heart J. 1998;19 Suppl M:M8-14.
  4. Bennett G. Pilot incapacitation and aircraft accidents. Eur Heart J. 1988;9 Suppl G:21-24. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/9.suppl_G.21.
  5. Ady Wirawan IM, Griffiths RF, Larsen PD. Cardiovascular Tests for Risk Assessment in Asymptomatic Adults and Implications for Pilots. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2018;89(7):648-656. doi:10.3357/AMHP.5065.2018.
  6. Ekstrand K, Bostrom PA, Arborelius M, Nilsson JA, Lindell SE. Cardiovascular risk factors in commercial flight aircrew officers compared with those in the general population. Angiology. 1996;47(11):1089-1094. doi:10.1177/000331979604701109.
  7. Lou F, Shen Q, Xu L, et al. Prevalence of Hypertension and Associated Risk Factors among Civil Aviation Pilots. Journal of Environmental & Occupational Medicine. 2015;32(8):735-738. [Chinese].
  8. Fei X, Xu ZM, Li Q, et al. The survey and analysis of the blood lipid status of civil airlines pilots. Zhonghua Hang Kong Hang Tian Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2012;23(4):245-249.
  9. Zhao R, Xiao D, Fan X, et al. Epidemiological survey of dyslipidemia in civil aviators in china from 2006 to 2011. Int J Endocrinol. 2014;2014:215076. doi:10.1155/2014/215076.
  10. Shen Y, Nong QL, Song L, et al. Survey of the blood lipid level of 192 civil aviators. Zhonghua Hang Kong Hang Tian Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2012;23(1):58-60.
  11. Joint Committee for the Revision of the Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Dyslipidemia. Guidelines for the prevention and treatment of dyslipidemia in Chinese adults (revised 2016). Chinese Circulation Journal. 2016;31(10):7-28.
  12. Chen C, Lu FC. Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Overweight and Obesity in Chinese Adults. Acta Nutrimenta Sinica. 2004;26(1):1-4.
  13. Yu H, Liu G, Liu T, et al. Distribution and aggregation analysis of biological risk factors for cardiovascular disease among 831 pilots over 40 years old. Zhongguo Shi Yong Nei Ke Za Zhi. 2015;35(S1):5-7. [Chinese].
  14. Zhao R, Fan X, Dong Y, et al. A survey and investigation on the blood lipid levels of Northwest China’s civil aviation pilot. Zhongguo Yi Yao Dao Bao. 2014;11(5):116-119. [Chinese].
  15. Liu AB, Wang QQ, Zhou XJ, et al. Blood lipid profile survey of military pilots. Zhonghua Hang Kong Hang Tian Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2005;16(4):280-287.
  16. Li T, Zhang Y, Zhu Y. Analysis on the dyslipidemia in civil pilots. Zhonghua Hang Kong Hang Tian Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2012;23(3):204- 207.
  17. Gordon DJ, Probstfield JL, Garrison RJ, et al. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Four prospective American studies. Circulation. 1989;79(1):8-15. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.79.1.8.
  18. Castelli WP, Doyle JT, Gordon T, et al. HDL cholesterol and other lipids in coronary heart disease. The cooperative lipoprotein phenotyping study. Circulation. 1977;55(5):767-772. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.55.5.767.
  19. Wilkins JT, Ning H, Stone NJ, et al. Coronary heart disease risks associated with high levels of HDL cholesterol. J Am Heart Assoc. 2014;3(2):e000519. doi:10.1161/JAHA.113.000519.
  20. Nordestgaard BG, Varbo A. Triglycerides and cardiovascular disease. Lancet. 2014;384(9943):626-635. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61177-6.
  21. Freedman DS, Goodman A, Contreras OA, DasMahapatra P, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. Secular trends in BMI and blood pressure among children and adolescents: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Pediatrics. 2012;130(1):e159-166. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-3302.
  22. Freedman DS, Dietz WH, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. The relation of overweight to cardiovascular risk factors among children and adolescents: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Pediatrics. 1999;103(6 Pt 1):1175-1182. doi:10.1542/peds.103.6.1175.
  23. Sun GZ, Li Z, Guo L, Zhou Y, Yang HM, Sun YX. High prevalence of dyslipidemia and associated risk factors among rural Chinese adults. Lipids Health Dis. 2014;13:189. doi:10.1186/1476-511X-13-189.
  24. Cai L, Zhang L, Liu A, Li S, Wang P. Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of dyslipidemia among adults in Beijing, China. J Atheroscler Thromb. 2012;19(2):159-168. doi:10.5551/jat.10116.
  25. Welsh JA, Sharma A, Cunningham SA, Vos MB. Consumption of added sugars and indicators of cardiovascular disease risk among US adolescents. Circulation. 2011;123(3):249-257. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.972166.
  26. Thorland WG, Gilliam TB. Comparison of serum lipids between habitually high and low active pre-adolescent males. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1981;13(5):316-321. doi:10.1249/00005768-198105000-00008.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 22 October 2018
  • Revise Date: 25 December 2018
  • Accept Date: 02 February 2019

Share

How to cite

Statistics