Blood pressure levels of active pilots compared with those of air traffic controllers

Currently some 15,212 active airmen are certified to fly with a diagnosis of hypertension. Federal Aviation Administrative blood pressure standards for certification of airmen are considered to be quite liberal. A systematic sample of pre-strike air traffic controllers was extracted from automated medical files maintained by the Aeromedical Certification Branch of the Civil Aeromedical Institute for comparison with airman data. Distributions of blood pressure by age were compared by using conventional non-parametric techniques for 10-year age intervals. Data were also compared with general population findings. Prevalence of hypertension is greater in the general United States population than found with any of the groups reported here. Prevalence of borderline and definite hypertension is seen to increase with age for all groups studied. Prevalence of any degree of hypertension is lower for airline pilots than either the all-airmen group or the air traffic controller group.