NCT04487899

Analysis of Heart Rate Variability During Emergency Flight Simulator Missions in Fighter Pilots

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 18 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universidad de Extremadura · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The autonomous response of fighter and attack pilots who attend sessions in a flight simulator will be evaluated by measuring and analyzing heart rate variability (HRV).

Detailed description

The autonomous response of fighter and attack pilots during emergency situations in a flight simulator will be assessed by measuring and analysing heart rate variability (HRV). Eighteen pilots with instructor or student status assigned at the time of the evaluation to the ALA 23 district of the Talavera la Real Air Base of the Ministry of Defence of the Spanish Government (Badajoz) were studied during emergency situations in flight simulator. Subjects were assigned by non-probabilistic randomisation to an instructor group (IG; 7 subjects), and to a student group (AG; 11 subjects). The recording of the parameters indicated corresponds to the emergency situations described above. Data collection was made in three different moments: 1. Take-off: it starts after reading the checklist until the engine fault is resolved. 2. Flight: during manoeuvres characterised by the recovery of abnormal positions. 3. Landing: where the pilot performs the landing manoeuvre, with the loss of spatial situation.

Conditions

• Heart Rate Variability
• Autonomic Nervous System

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Analysis of heart rate variability	The HR HRV interval of the heartbeat (variations in the time interval between beats) was used as a measure of autonomous modulation, and the Firstbeat Bodyguard monitor (Firstbeat Technologies, Jyväskylä, Finland) was used to record HRV data during the session with emergency situations in the flight simulator. Data was downloaded from the devices to a computer using Firstbeat Uploader software (Firstbeat Technologies), and all R-R interval series were imported into the Kubios software package (University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland). To calculate the autonomous equilibrium, the commonly used HRV method based on the Poincaré graph was used (Brennan et al., 2001; Mourot et al., 2004).

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-10-01
• Primary completion: 2019-11-18
• Completion: 2020-03-10
• First posted: 2020-07-27
• Last updated: 2022-09-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain