Exploring relationships between health-related lifestyle habits and fatigue among flight attendants and trainees

Fatigue in flight attendants is an important issue concerning flight safety and occupational health. It is well known that work-related factors and certain lifestyle habits can cause fatigue. But very few studies have focused on the difference between having work experience flight attendants and no flight experience trainees.

The present study was performed to compare and investigate the relationships between fatigue and health-related lifestyle habits among flight attendants and trainees.

A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study with convenience sampling was conducted. A total of 107 flight attendants and 109 trainees were recruited in an international airline. The research was using a self-developed health-related lifestyle habits questionnaire and the Checklist Individual Strength (CIS) scale. The relationships between health-related lifestyle habits and fatigue were examined by Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression was used to identify factors predicting fatigue among flight attendants and trainees.

Nearly half of the participants had fatigue and poor health-related lifestyle habits. Logistic regression showed that trainees with sleeping hours less than 7 hours, had a higher probability of fatigue than those who sleep more than 7 hours. In addition, the flight attendants with an irregular sleep pattern, unbalanced diet, sedentary leisure-time, no use relaxation technique, and an exercise frequency below once a week had a higher probability of fatigue.

The flight attendants' sleep patterns, diet, activity, and relaxation had a more significant impact on fatigue than trainees. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle is important in this population for good workplace performance.