A “significant number†of active pilots are suffering from depression, according to a report by health researchers at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.1
The report, published Dec. 15, 2016, in Environmental Health said that the conclusions were based on a web-based survey of 3,485 pilots; of that number, 1,848 airline pilots responded to the patient health questionnaire, including 233 (12.6 percent) whose answers were interpreted as meeting the questionnaire’s definition of depression. Of 1,430 respondents who said they had worked as an airline pilot in the previous seven days, 193 (13.5 percent) met the definition of depression. Seventy-five survey participants (4.1 percent) reported that they had experienced suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks.
Depression occurred at higher levels among pilots who used sleep-aid medication and those who reported experiencing sexual harassment or verbal harassment, the report said.
The surveyâ…
