Are pulmonologists well aware of planning safe air travel for patients with COPD? The SAFCOP study.
Adult
Aged
Air Travel
Attitude of Health Personnel
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Lung
/ physiopathology
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Safety
Practice Patterns, Physicians'
Predictive Value of Tests
Prognosis
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
/ diagnosis
Pulmonologists
/ psychology
Respiratory Function Tests
Risk Assessment
Risk Factors
Turkey
Workload
air travel
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
hypoxemia
preflight assessment
pulmonologist
Journal
International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
ISSN: 1178-2005
Titre abrégé: Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis
Pays: New Zealand
ID NLM: 101273481
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2019
2019
Historique:
received:
02
04
2019
accepted:
01
08
2019
entrez:
6
11
2019
pubmed:
7
11
2019
medline:
14
4
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Patients with respiratory diseases are more prone to health risks of air travel. The aim of this study was to investigate the current knowledge and attitudes of Turkish pulmonary physicians for air travel in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A questionnaire was developed and administered either by congress mobile phone application or by e-mail. A total of 242 physicians participated in the study (75 by mobile phone application and 167 through the e-mail). Among participants, only 30.6% reported that they usually inform COPD patients about possible risks of air travel in their routine practice. A preflight assessment was performed by 61.2% of them and a fit to fly report was prepared by 34.3%. The most common methods/tests used for preflight assessment were reported as oxygen saturation with pulse oximetry, arterial blood gas analysis, and pulmonary function tests (51.2%, 50.8%, and 49.6%, respectively). When the participants were asked to plan safe air travel in two clinical case scenarios, only 16.2% were able to answer both cases correctly. This study shows that a standard approach for preflight assessment in patients with COPD is lacking and an active initiative is needed to increase awareness and education for fit to fly concept for COPD among pulmonologists.
Sections du résumé
Background
Patients with respiratory diseases are more prone to health risks of air travel.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to investigate the current knowledge and attitudes of Turkish pulmonary physicians for air travel in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Participants and methods
A questionnaire was developed and administered either by congress mobile phone application or by e-mail. A total of 242 physicians participated in the study (75 by mobile phone application and 167 through the e-mail).
Results
Among participants, only 30.6% reported that they usually inform COPD patients about possible risks of air travel in their routine practice. A preflight assessment was performed by 61.2% of them and a fit to fly report was prepared by 34.3%. The most common methods/tests used for preflight assessment were reported as oxygen saturation with pulse oximetry, arterial blood gas analysis, and pulmonary function tests (51.2%, 50.8%, and 49.6%, respectively). When the participants were asked to plan safe air travel in two clinical case scenarios, only 16.2% were able to answer both cases correctly.
Conclusion
This study shows that a standard approach for preflight assessment in patients with COPD is lacking and an active initiative is needed to increase awareness and education for fit to fly concept for COPD among pulmonologists.
Identifiants
pubmed: 31686801
doi: 10.2147/COPD.S210854
pii: 210854
pmc: PMC6709818
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1895-1900Informations de copyright
© 2019 Ergan et al.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors report no conflicts of interests in this work.
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