Quantifi cation of Changes in the Functional Status of a Person During the Aircraft Flight

Abstract

The article is devoted to the approach to the quantitative estimation of changes in the functional state of a person during an airplane flight based on the results of stabilometric and oculographic examinations of airplane passengers carried out before and after the flight. Fourteen volunteers of both sexes participated in the study. They performed 21 pairs of pre-flight and post-flight examinations. For the existing sample of volunteers, parameters were identified that had a consistent trend of change. These parameters include visual tracking quality and stabilometric characteristics. In 70 % probes a decrease in the slow phases of optokinetic nystagmus average speed was noted. In most volunteers, changes in the stabilometric parameters for the optokinetic test and the balance test on an unstable support in the form of foam plate are noticeable. The tracking speeds, the average velocity of the pressure center, and the quality index of the equilibrium function decreased after the flight in more than 70 % of all samples. It was noted that the Hurst index after the flight decreased compared to background sample, during get up on the polyurethane foam plate in the vast majority of volunteers. In test before the flight the change in this parameter was multidirectional. In a stabilometric test with a "stepped deviation", in which a volunteer on command made quick bends at a small angle due to a change in the angle in the ankle joint, 75 % of the subjects after the flights showed a decrease in the average speed.