Korean J Occup Health Nurs.  2012 May;21(1):66-75.

The Factors Affecting Physical Fitness Level of Female Flight Attendants

• Lee HJ
• Park CY
• Kim YK
• Yi Y

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study is aimed at obtaining the information on the physical fitness level of female flight attendants at a local airline.
METHODS
The subjects are 2,409 female flight attendants who have had medical examination and physical fitness tests at an airline medical center from January 2 to December 30, 2008. The independent variables include socio-demographic & behavioral characteristics, and medical examination results, whereas the dependent variable is their physical strength score representing their fitness level.
RESULTS
Factors that affect the fitness strength score are age, flight hours per year, and fasting blood sugar level. It is found that physical fitness level is higher when the subjects are over 35, on board for over 850 hours per year and their fasting blood sugar level is over 100 mg/dL.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that for the improvement of flight attendants' health, more exercise to develop cardio-respiratory endurance and muscular strength is needed, and further study needs to be done to develop fitness enhancement programs considering flight attendants' job characteristics, working years, and flight hours per year, and programs for those returning to their workplace after a long-term leave, and new employees.

Keyword

Flight attendants; Physical fitness level

MeSH Terms

Blood Glucose
Fasting
Female
Humans
Physical Fitness
Blood Glucose