Development and evaluation of an intervention aiming to reduce fatigue in airline pilots: design of a randomised controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: A considerable percentage of flight crew reports to be fatigued regularly. This is partly caused by irregular and long working hours and the crossing of time zones. It has been shown that persistent fatigue can lead to health problems, impaired performance during work, and a decreased work-private life balance. It is hypothesized that an intervention consisting of tailored advice regarding exposure to daylight, optimising sleep, physical activity, and nutrition will lead to a reduction of fatigue in airline pilots compared to a control group, which receives a minimal intervention with standard available information. METHODS/DESIGN: The study population will consist of pilots of a large airline company. All pilots who posses a smartphone or tablet, and who are not on sick leave for more than four weeks at the moment of recruitment, will be eligible for participation.In a two-armed randomised controlled trial, participants will be allocated to an intervention group that will receive the tailored advice to optimise exposure to daylight, sleep, physical activity and nutrition, and a control group that will receive standard available information. The intervention will be applied using a smartphone application and a website, and will be tailored on flight- and participant-specific characteristics. The primary outcome of the study is perceived fatigue. Secondary outcomes are need for recovery, duration and quality of sleep, dietary and physical activity behaviours, work-private life balance, general health, and sickness absence. A process evaluation will be conducted as well. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at three and six months after baseline. DISCUSSION: This paper describes the development of an intervention for airline pilots, consisting of tailored advice (on exposure to daylight and sleep-, physical activity, and nutrition) applied into a smartphone application. Further, the paper describes the design of the randomised controlled trial evaluating the effect of the intervention on fatigue, health and sickness absence. If proven effective, the intervention can be applied as a new and practical tool in fatigue management. Results are expected at the end of 2013. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Netherlands Trial Register: NTR2722.
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Other studies found that apps had a wide reach.
“One study by van Drongelen et al. found that groups of people of various ages and demographic factors used its mobile app [67], and other studies examined apps and found they had a wide reach.”
From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [67]
The Methods/design section describes van Drongelen et al.’s smartphone app for airline pilots. But this is a trial-design paper: the Methods/design and Discussion say app usage and participants’ demographic characteristics will be measured or compared, not that people of various ages and demographic groups used the app. The cited source therefore supports the app identification, but not the finding attributed to it; the sentence’s separate claim about other studies is not attached to this citation. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOne study found that groups of people of various ages and demographic factors used its mobile app.
“One study by van Drongelen et al. found that groups of people of various ages and demographic factors used its mobile app [67], and other studies examined apps and found they had a wide reach.”
From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [67]
The Methods/design section (Description of the intervention) describes a smartphone app for airline pilots. But this is a trial-design paper: the Process evaluation section says app usage will be measured, and the Discussion (Strengths & limitations) says participants’ demographics can be compared with those of all pilots. Neither reports a finding that people of various ages or demographic groups used the app. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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van Drongelen, A., Boot, C. R., Hlobil, H., Twisk, J. W., Smid, T., & van der Beek, A. J. (2014) · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health · doi:10.5271/sjweh.3447 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
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- Authors
- van Drongelen, A., van der Beek, A. J., Hlobil, H., Smid, T., & Boot, C. R.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Boot, Cécile RL
- ORCID
- Boot, Cécile RL
- Venue
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2013-08-26
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 776-776
- ISSN
- 1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3765738
- OpenAlex
- W2019257473
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 2.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- TNO Repository (submittedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- fatigue, airline pilots, aircrew, fatigue management, sleep quality, daylight exposure, physical activity, nutrition, tailored advice, mobile application, work-life balance, sick leave, occupational health
- MeSH terms
- Aircraft, Fatigue, Humans, Motor Activity, Netherlands, Occupational Health Services, Research Design, Sleep, Sunlight, Program Evaluation, Risk Reduction Behavior, Cell Phone
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