Cigarette Addiction in Flight Personnel and Coping Methods with Nicotine Deficiency during Flight

Boğaziçi Tıp Dergisi

Gülay İlkhan Daşdemir¹  Hakan Çelikhisar² 

[1] Department of Chest Diseases, Okmeydanı Trainning and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey;Department of Chest Diseases, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Hospital, İzmir, Turkey;

关键词: cigarette addiction;    flight personnel;    nicotine deficiency.;   

DOI  :  10.14744/bmj.2019.79553

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

INTRODUCTION[|]Smoking is an addictive habit used by many people of all ages and occupations. Smoking adversely affects users physically, spiritually, socially and economically. Airline companies implement policies to ban smoking. Flight performance may be reduced in flight personnel, especially in pilots who smoke. Studies on smoking are limited in cabin crew, pilot and other flight crew personnel. Smoking is prohibited during the flight. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the smoking-related habits of active smokers and quitted flight personnel, especially on long flights dealing with what symptoms they experienced most frequently due to nicotine deficiency during the flight and how they tried to cope with this situation.[¤]METHODS[|]In this study, a questionnaire was applied between May and July 2019 to cabin crew, pilot and other flight crews who fly in Turkey and abroad. The surveys were conducted on a voluntary basis after obtaining the written document approvals at Istanbul Airport, Sabiha Gökçen Airport and İzmir Adnan Menderes Airports at the same time. The criterion of quitting was accepted as no smoking for a year, and as a criterion for smoking, at least one smoking per day was accepted.[¤]RESULTS[|]This study was conducted with a total of 263 participants. All of the participants were flight personnel and worked as cabin crew, pilot, dispatcher, technician, loadmaster and so on. Nicotine deficiency during the flight was felt in 18.3% of the participants, while 9.9% often felt nicotine deficiency, 47.5% sometimes felt, and 24.3% did not feel nicotine deficiency. The most common factor aggregating the sense of nicotine deficiency during the flight was rituals, including tea and coffee, with a rate of 36.9%. This was followed by long flight times with a rate of 34.6%. Among study participants, 52.1% cope with nicotine deficiency by eating-drinking snack, 35% by suppressing, 9.1% trying to cope by wearing a nicotine band. The most common desire to eat was followed by restlessness and lack of concentration, respectively.[¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]Cigarette addiction is an important problem in flight personnel and may force employees psychologically and diminish their productivity. This research we conducted in this special group aimed to examine the methods of coping with tobacco addiction, and there is a need for research to develop successful tobacco control and quitting methods for similar specific groups.[¤]

【 授权许可】

Unknown