Prevalence of respiratory symptoms among female flight attendants and teachers
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Potential health effects of the indoor environment in office buildings and aircraft have generated considerable concern in recent years. AIMS: To analyse the prevalence of self reported respiratory symptoms and illnesses in flight attendants (FAs) and schoolteachers. METHODS: Data were collected as part of a study of reproductive health among female FAs. The prevalences of work related eye, nose, and throat symptoms, wheezing, physician diagnosed asthma, chest illness, and cold or flu were calculated and stratified by smoking status in 1824 FAs and 331 schoolteachers. RESULTS: FAs and teachers were significantly more likely to report work related eye (12.4% and 7.4 %, respectively), nose (15.7% and 8.1%), and throat symptoms (7.5% and 5.7%) than were other working women (2.9% eye, 2.7% nose, and 1.3% throat symptoms). FAs were significantly more likely than teachers and referent working women to report chest illness during the prior three years (32.9%, 19.3%, 7.2%, respectively). Both study groups were more likely to report five or more episodes of cold or flu in the past year than were other working women (10.2% of FAs, 8.2% of teachers, 2.3% of referents), and both groups were more likely to report wheezing than other working women (22.8% of FAs, 28.4% of teachers, 16.4% of referents). FAs were significantly less likely than teachers and other working women to report ever having been diagnosed with asthma (8.2%, 13.3%, 11.8%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, FAs and schoolteachers report a higher prevalence of work related upper respiratory symptoms, chest illness, and cold or flu than the general working population.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Recent studies demonstrate significant rates of abnormal pulmonary function in this population, including air trapping, reduced flow at mid-volume, reduced exercise tolerance, and elevated rates of chronic bronchitis and sinusitis.
“Recent studies (Whelan et al., 2003; Arjomandi et al., 2009, 2012; McNeely et al., 2014) demonstrate significant rates of abnormal pulmonary function in this population: air trapping, reduced flow at mid-volume, reduced exercise tolerance, and significantly elevated rates of chronic bronchitis and sinusitis.”
From Effectiveness of a Novel Qigong Meditative Movement Practice for Impaired Health in Flight Attendants Exposed to Second-Hand Cigarette Smoke (2017) · cites this paper as Whelan et al., 2003
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Service, I., & Shirazi, M. A. (2005) · Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation · doi:10.2175/193864705783867675 · Cited by 6,674 · see citing works
SUDAAN User's Manual, Release 7.5,
Bieler, G. S., Barnwell, B., & Shah, B. V. (1997) · Cited by 1,285 · see citing works
Seppanen, O. A., Fisk, W. J., & Mendell, M. J. (1999) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1999.00003.x · Cited by 876 · see citing works
Design and estimation for the National Health Interview Survey, 1995-2004
Botman, S., & Moriarity, C. L. (2000) · Cited by 785 · see citing works
Apte, M. G., Fisk, W. J., & Daisey, J. M. (2000) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010004246.x · Cited by 341 · see citing works
Implementing participatory ergonomics teams among health care workers
Bohr, P. C., Evanoff, B., & Wolf, L. (1997) · American Journal of Industrial Medicine · doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199709)32:3 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Health symptoms and the work environment in four nonproblem United States office buildings
Nelson, N. A., Kaufman, J. D., Burt, J., & Karr, C. J. (1995) · Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health · doi:10.5271/sjweh.8 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
van Netten, C., & Leung, V. C. M. (2000) · Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene · doi:10.1080/104732200301593 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Perceptions of Indoor Air Quality Associated with Ventilation System Types in Elementary Schools
Kinshella, M. R., Dyke, M. V. V., Douglas, K. E., et al. (2001) · Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene · doi:10.1080/104732201300367209 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Air Quality and Comfort in Airliner Cabins
Nagda, N. L. (2000) · doi:10.1520/stp1393-eb · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Tashkin, D. P., Coulson, A. H., Simmons, M. S., et al. (1983) · International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health · doi:10.1007/bf00405416 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Prevalence of Chest Symptoms in Nonexposed Blue-Collar Workers
Petersen, M. R., & Castellan, R. M. (1984) · Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/00043764-198405000-00011 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Self-citationIndoor Air Quality: Recommendations Relevant to Aircraft Passenger Cabins
Hocking, M. B. (1998) · American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal · doi:10.1080/15428119891010181 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Trends in Cabin Air Quality of Commercial Aircraft: Industry and Passenger Perspectives
Hocking, M. B. (2002) · Reviews on Environmental Health · doi:10.1515/reveh.2002.17.1.1 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Feasibility Issues in Reproductive Biomonitoring of Female Flight Attendants and Teachers
Whelan, E. A., Grajewski, B. A., Wood, E. A., et al. (2002) · Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/00043764-200210000-00014 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationQuestionnaire Survey to Evaluate the Health and Comfort of Cabin Crew
Lee, S., Poon, C. S., Li, X. D., et al. (2000) · doi:10.1520/stp14498s · Cited by 15 · see citing works
School employees: the forgotten municipal workers.
Alexander, D. L. (2007) · PubMed · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Indoor Air Quality: Recommendations Relevant to Aircraft Passenger Cabins
Hocking, M. B. (1998) · American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal · doi:10.1202/0002-8894(1998)059 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The self-reported health of U.S. flight attendants compared to the general population
McNeely, E., Gale, S., Tager, I., Kincl, L., Bradley, J., Coull, B., & Hecker, S. (2014) · Environmental Health · doi:10.1186/1476-069x-13-13 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Payne, P., Fiering, S., Leiter, J. C., Zava, D. T., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2017) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00067 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Whelan, E. A., Lawson, C. C., Grajewski, B., Petersen, M. R., Pinkerton, L. E., Ward, E. M., & Schnorr, T. M.
- Affiliations
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Whelan, E A
- Venue
- Occupational and Environmental Medicine
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2003-11-21
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 929-934
- ISSN
- 0007-1072 (ISSN-L)
- 1351-0711
- 1470-7926
- PMC
- PMC1740431
- OpenAlex
- W2126220456
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Occupational and Environmental Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense
- Federal Aviation Administration
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Occupational exposure and asthma
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
- Keywords
- respiratory symptoms, flight attendants, school teachers, occupational health, aircraft cabin environment, office indoor environment, wheezing, asthma, cold and flu, smoking, women's employment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aerospace Medicine, Aircraft, Environment, Controlled, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Occupational Diseases, Surveys and Questionnaires, Respiratory Sounds, Respiratory Tract Diseases, Schools, Teaching, United States, Prevalence, Air Pollution, Indoor
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
