A recent study revealed that 69% of pilots and their co-pilots suffer from obstructive apnea, calling for the need to take seriously complaints of drowsiness, fatigue, depression or insomnia, as a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, and should be evaluated and treated early.
This came in a study conducted by a group of academics from the Sleep Medicine and Research Center at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah and from the College of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture Department of Environmental Sciences “Occupational Safety and Health” on obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in some pilots, and the following participated in the study: Dr. Afnan Hafez, Prof. Siraj Wali, Dr. Rania Al-Shamrani, Dr. Ahmed Al-Zuhairi, Prof. Mansour Balkhewar and Dr. Pandey Perumal, headed by Dr. Fares Al-Hujaili, Consultant Chest and Sleep Medicine and Deputy Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine and Research
The results of the home test confirmed the presence of a prevalence of this syndrome among pilots, as it was found that 69% of them suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, and the majority of participants (64%) suffer from obstructive apnea to a slight degree, 5% to a moderate degree and 2.5 1/3 of the participants suffer from insomnia and severe stress, 23.1% suffer from severe daytime sleepiness, 10.3% suffer from moderate depression, and 25.6% suffer from mild depression. Clinical sleep examination when the pilots are recruited and clinically reassessed when any of the known symptoms of the syndrome or any of its indicators such as weight gain, advanced age or an underactive thyroid gland appear.
