To analyze the characteristics of disease spectrum of medical grounded flying personnel in Air Force and Army from 2003 to 2016 in order to provide data evidence for aeromedical support improvement.

The documents and medical records of the Air Force and Army flying personnel grounded from 2003 to 2016 were searched and collected with cluster sampling and retrospective investigation. Then, all kinds of data were input, sorted out, summarized and checked. The characteristics of medical grounded diseases of all kinds of flying personnel were analyzed upon different dimensions, such as aircraft type, age as grounded, flying hours and so on.

We selected 762 grounded flying personnel in this study. The top 10 diseases that led to medical grounding were mental and behavioral disorders (12.47%), headache (10.63%), cervical and lumbar diseases (8.53%), hypertension (7.74%), fundus lesions (3.41%), ametropia (3.28%), vertigo (3.28%), heart disease (3.15%), poor acceleration intolerance (3.02%), and knee arthropathy (3.02%). The constituent ratio of mental and behavioral disorders in transport (bomber) and helicopter flying personnel were significantly higher than that in fighter (attacker) flying personnel (χ²=13.711, 4.326, P<0.05). The constituent ratio of headache in transport (bomber) flying personnel was significantly higher than that in fighter (attacker) pilots (χ²=4.599, P<0.05). The constituent ratio of cervical and lumbar diseases in fighter (attacker) pilots was significantly higher than that in transport (bomber) flying personnel (χ²=7.572, P <0.01 ) . Poor acceleration intolerance was only found in fighter (attacker) pilots. Other disease constitution had insignificant difference among the grounded flying personnel of varied type of aircraft. The study showed that the peak of grounded flying personnel was at 36-40 years old. The constituent ratio of grounded helicopter flying personnel at age of 26-30 was significantly higher than that of fighter (attacker) pilots ( χ²=6.641, P<0.01) and transport (bombing) flying personnel (χ²=17.530, P<0.01). The constituent ratios of grounded transport (bomber) flying personnel at age of 41-45 and 46-50 were significantly higher than those of fighter (attacker) pilots (χ²=8.512, 38.453, P<0.01) and helicopter flying personnel (χ²=14.600, 18.079, P<0.01). The peak of grounded flying personnel was at 1 501-2 000 h flying hours. Both the peak of grounded fighter (attacker) and transporter (bomber) flying personnel were in this range. The peak of grounded helicopter flying personnel was at ≤500 h flying hours. The constituent ratios of grounded helicopter flying personnel at ≤500 h and 501-1 000 h flying hours, were significantly higher than those of fighter (attacker) pilots (χ²=17.222, 7.873, P<0.01) and transport (bomber) flying personnel (χ²=31.448, 14.459, P<0.01).

The populations of the grounded flying personnel due to mental and behavioral disorders, headaches, cervical and lumbar diseases and hypertension take higher rank in all types of aircraft even the orders are different. Poor acceleration intolerance is mainly occurred in fighter (attacker) pilots. The peak populations of the grounded helicopter flying personnel are at younger age and fewer flight hours.

Mental disorders; Headache; Hypertension; Neck pain; Low back pain; Eligibility determination; Flying personnel