Longevity in military pilots: 37-year followup of the Navy's "1000 aviators"

The 37-year nonmilitary mortality rate for initially healthy aviators was determined in a followup program on the U.S. Navy's "1000 Aviator" cohort. Of the 800 survivors of World War II and the Korean conflict, 95 were found to have died from nonmilitary causes over this followup period. This is markedly less than the 208 that would be expected from a random sample of white American men over a similar period (p less than 0.005). It is also significantly less than the 143 that would have been expected from a group of men who had passed an initial insurance physical (p less than 0.005). Lower-than-expected death rates occurred in all three major categories of cause of death in this age group: cardiovascular, neoplastic, and accidental. The generally good socioeconomic background, the positive genetic influence of long-lived parents, the above average intelligence, and the health and fitness orientation of the military aviator are all thought to be factors contributing to this increased longevity.