How to measure fatigue among pilots?

Abstract

Fatigue represents a major problem in aviation. Therefore, it is important to identify fatigue among pilots early enough before an incident or an accident occurs. The aim of our study has been to conduct a literature review on measurements of fatigue among pilots; to find out which measurements are used to recognize fatigue and what the results of conducted studies are with the focus on the usefulness of tests for measuring fatigue. The findings are based on meta-analysis. For the purpose of our study, we have used electronic databases Google Scholar, Emerald, MedLit and Academic Search Complete. The content analysis of the articles has been used to summarize and compare qualitative data. The results obtained show that tests for measuring fatigue can be divided into two groups, objective tests and subjective tests. Pilots’ subjective fatigue is mostly evaluated using Samn-Perelli fatigue scale, which is widely used in the aviation industry and it provides data for comparison. The contribution of our study is the widened understanding of fatigue measuring and usefulness of these measurements among pilots. The findings of our research are descriptive in nature. Further studies should be focused on deeper investigation of this topic and could include case studies of fatigue among pilots with qualitative data.Umor predstavlja velik problem u zrakoplovstvu, stoga je važno rano prepoznati umor pilota prije nego što se dogodi nezgoda ili nesreća. Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je dati pregled literature koja se bavi mjerenjem umora pilota, saznati koja se mjerenja koriste kako bi se prepoznao umor te koji su rezultati provedenih istraživanja s obzirom na to koliko su korisni testovi za mjerenje umora. Rezultati se zasnivaju na metaanalizi. U našem istraživanju koristili smo sljedeće elektroničke baze podataka: Google Scholar, Emerald, MedLit and Academic Search Complete. Koristili smo analizu sadržaja radova kako bismo dobili pregled kvalitativnih podataka i usporedili ih. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da se testovi za mjerenje umora pilota mogu podijeliti u dvije grupe: objektivni i subjektivni testovi. Subjektivni umor pilota uglavnom se procjenjuje primjenom Samn-Perelli skale umora, koja se uvelike koristi u zrakoplovnoj industriji, a pruža podatke za usporedbu. Doprinos ovog istraživanja je proširenje razumijevanja mjerenja umora pilota i korisnost ovih mjerenja među pilotima. Rezultati našeg istraživanja su deskriptivne naravi. Daljnja istraživanja trebala bi se usredotočiti na dublja istraživanja ove teme te bi mogla uključiti i studije slučaja umora među pilotima s kvalitativnim podacima.