2013 Aerospace Medical Certification Statistical Handbook

42 Pages·2015·0.95 MB·English

DOT/FAA/AM-14/15
Office of Aerospace Medicine
Washington, DC 20591
2013 Aerospace Medical Certification
Statistical Handbook
Valerie J. Skaggs
Ann I. Norris
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Federal Aviation Administration
Oklahoma City, OK 73125
December 2014
Final Report
NOTICE
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship
of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest
of information exchange. The United States Government
assumes no liability for the contents thereof.
___________
This publication and all Office of Aerospace Medicine
technical reports are available in full-text from the
Federal Aviation Administration website.
Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No.
DOT/FAA/AM-14/15
4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date
2013 Aerospace Medical Certification Statistical Handbook December 2014
6. Performing Organization Code

7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No.
Skaggs VJ, Norris AI
9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
P.O. Box 25082 11. Contract or Grant No.
Oklahoma City, OK 73125

12. Sponsoring Agency name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Office of Aerospace Medicine
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20591 14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. Supplemental Notes

16. Abstract
Introduction. The annual Aerospace Medical Certification Statistical Handbook reports descriptive
characteristics of all active U.S. civil aviation airmen and the aviation medical examiners (AMEs) that
perform the required medical examinations. The 2013 annual handbook documents the most recent and
most widely relevant data on active civil aviation airmen and AMEs.
Methods. Medical certification records from 2008-2013 were selected from the Document Imaging
Workflow System (DIWS), which is the FAA medical certification database. All medical data were
abstracted from the most recent medical examinations with the exception of medical conditions which
were historical and current. Only those with a non-expired medical certificate remained in the dataset.
AME records were selected from the Aviation Medical Examiner Information System (AMEIS). The
current status of each AME was determined for each year of the study period from 2011-2013, retaining
only those with an active status.
Airman variables include age, issued and effective medical classes, height, weight, BMI, gender, select
medical conditions, special issuances, and FAA region of residence. AME variables include AME type,
age, gender, medical specialty, pilot license status, senior examiner status, and region.
Results. Airmen: As of December 31, 2013, there were 572,406 medically certified airmen age 16 and
older, and 33.8%, 21.0%, and 45.2% were issued a Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 medical certificate,
respectively. Across all medical classes, the average age was 43 years and 93.5% of the airmen were male.
The mean BMI for both females and males was 24.1 and 27.2 respectively. Six percent of issued
certificates required a special issuance. The most commonly reported medical condition was hypertension
with medication at 10.9%.
AME: Of the 3,324 active AMEs, 93.3% were civilian, 2.0% federal, and 4.7% military. Nearly 49%
reported their medical specialty as family practice. Their average age was 60.3 years; the majority (53.0%)
did not hold a pilot license, and 87.7% were male.
Summary. This report contains widely requested data on the active U.S. civil airman population. This
report is updated annually and is used by the aerospace community, including FAA leadership, aerospace
researchers, advocacy groups, legislative staff, and the general public.

17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement
Pilot Medical Certification, Pilot Demographics, Document is available to the public through the
Internet:
Pilot Medical Conditions, Pilot Statistics,
www.faa.gov/go/oamtechreports
Aviation Medical Examiners
19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price
Unclassified Unclassified 40
Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized
i

CONTENTS
2013 AErOSpACE MEdiCAl CErTifiCATiON STATiSTiCAl HANdbOOk
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Table 1 . FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Year and Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Section I . Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Table 2 . Designated FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Year and Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Figure 1 . Distribution of Newly Appointed FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Region and Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Figure 2 . Distribution of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Region and Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Figure 3 . Distribution of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Figure 4 . Medical Practice Specialty of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Figure 5 . Gender Distribution of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table 3 . Pilot License Type of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Figure 6 . Pilot License Type of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 4 . Senior Examiner Status of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure 7 . Senior Examiner Status of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Table 5 . Age by Gender of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 8 . Age Group of Active FAA Aviation Medical Examiners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Section II . Airman Medical Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Table 6 . Number of Medical Applications Processed by Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Table 7 . Issued and Effective Medical Class by Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Table 8 . Issued Medical Class by State of Residence and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 9 . Issued Medical Class by Region and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Table 9 . Age as of 12/31/2013 of all Active Airmen by Effective Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Table 10 . Age Groups of all Active Airmen by Effective Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure 10 . Age Groups as of 12/31/2013 of all Active Airmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Figure 11 . Age Groups as of 12/31/2013 by Effective Medical Class for all Active Airmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Table 11 . Age at Exam Summary Statistics for Active Airmen by Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Table 12 . Age Groups for all Active Airmen by Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Figure 12 . Age Group of all Active Airmen at Time of Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 13 . Age Groups by Issued Medical Class for all Active Airmen at Time of Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Table 13 . Age at Time of Exam by Issued Medical Class and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Figure 14 . Age Group at Time of Exam by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Table 14 . Height (inches) of all Active Airmen by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Table 15 . Height (inches) by Issued Medical Class and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Figure 15 . Height (inches) by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Figure 16 . Height (inches) by Issued Medical Class – Females only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 17 . Height (inches) by Issued Medical Class – Males only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Table 16 . Weight (pounds) of all Active Airmen by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table 17 . Weight (pounds) by Issued Medical Class and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 18 . Weight (pounds) by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 19 . Weight (pounds) by Issued Medical Class – Females only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Figure 20 . Weight (pounds) by Issued Medical Class – Males only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Table 18 . BMI of all Active Airmen by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
iii
Table 19 . BMI Category by Issued Medical Class and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 21 . BMI by Gender and Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 22 . BMI by Issued Medical Class – Females only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 23 . BMI by Issued Medical Class – Males only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 20 . Special Issuance by Issued Medical Class, Gender, Age, and Body Mass Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Figure 24 . Special Issuance by Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Figure 25 . Special Issuance by Age Group at Time of Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Figure 26 . Special Issuance by BMI Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table 21 . Top 15 Reported Medical Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Table 22 . Medical Conditions by Issued Medical Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
iv
2013 A M C S H
ErOSpACE EdiCAl ErTifiCATiON TATiSTiCAl ANdbOOk
iNTrOduCTiON rESulTS
The annual Aerospace Medical Certification Statistical Hand- Airmen . As of December 31, 2013, there were 572,406
book reports descriptive characteristics of all active U .S . civil medically certified airmen age 16 and older, and 33 .8%, 21 .0%,
aviation airmen and the aviation medical examiners (AMEs) that and 45 .2% were issued a Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 medical
perform the required medical examinations . The 2013 annual certificate, respectively . Across all medical classes, the average age
handbook documents the most recent and most widely relevant was 43 .0 years and 93 .5% of the airmen were male . The mean
data on active civil aviation airmen and AMEs . BMI for both females and males was 24 .1 and 27 .2 respectively .
Six percent of issued certificates required a special issuance . The
METHOdS most commonly reported medical condition was hypertension
with medication at 10 .9% .
Medical certification records from 2008-2013 were selected AMEs. Of the 3,324 active AMEs, 93 .3% were civilian, 2 .0%
from the Document Imaging Workflow System (DIWS), which federal, and 4 .7% military . Nearly 49% reported their medical
is the FAA medical certification database . All medical data were specialty as family practice . Their average age was 60 .3 years;
abstracted from the most recent medical examinations with the the majority (53 .0%) did not hold a pilot license, and 87 .7%
exception of medical conditions which were historical and cur- were male .
rent . Only those with a non-expired medical certificate remained
in the dataset . SuMMAry
AME records were selected from the Aviation Medical Exam-
iner Information System (AMEIS) . The current status of each This report contains widely requested data on the active U .S .
AME was determined for each year of the study period from civil airman population . This report is updated annually and is
2011-2013, retaining only those with an active status . used by the aerospace community, including FAA leadership,
Airman variables include age, issued and effective medical aerospace researchers, advocacy groups, legislative staff, and the
classes, height, weight, BMI, gender, select medical conditions, general public .
special issuances, and FAA region of residence . AME variables
include AME type, age, gender, medical specialty, pilot license
status, senior examiner status, and region .
1
SECTiON i. AviATiON MEdiCAl ExAMiNErS physical examinations for issuance of FAA medical certificates .
These physicians are designated according to the geographical
This section characterizes the aviation medical examiners distribution of airmen . There are also military facilities (installa-
during 2013 with some comparative data from 2011 and 2012 . tions) designated to perform FAA airmen examinations of military
All analyses represent data through December 31, 2013 unless personnel for issuance of second- and third-class certificates .
otherwise noted . Data may slightly fluctuate annually from AME seminars are held in each region and at Oklahoma City’s
systematic changes and corrections to the records . Civil Aerospace Medical Institute to acquaint these physicians
An aviation medical examiner (AME) is a physician authorized with the regulations and procedures governing the issuance of
by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform airmen FAA medical certificates .

TaTbalebl e1 . 1F.A FAA AAv Aiavtiiaotnio Mn eMdeicdaicl aElx Eaxmaimneinrse rbsy b Yye Yare aarn da nTdy pTey.pe
2011 2012 2013
AME
Number Number Number
Type
(Percent of Total) (Percent of Total) (Percent of Total)
3,272 3,218 3,102
Civilian
(94.2) (93.8) (93.3)
76 68 67
Federal
(2.2) (2.0) (2.0)
125 145 155
Military
(3.6) (4.2) (4.7)
Total 3,473 3,431 3,324

2
1
Table 2. Designated FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Year and Region
Table 2. Designated FAA Aviation Medical Examiners by Year and Region
Newly Appointed All Active
Number Number
Region
(Percent of Total by Year) (Percent of Total by Year)
2011 2012 2013 2011 2012 2013
1 1 1 65 63 54
Alaskan
(0.8) (0.6) (0.8) (1.9) (1.8) (1.6)
2 8 5 174 177 170
Central
(1.7) (5.0) (3.8) (5.0) (5.2) (5.1)
2 11 9 379 373 355
Eastern
(1.7) (6.9) (6.8) (10.9) (10.9) (10.7)
2 2 3 95 88 87
Federal/Official
(1.7) (1.3) (2.3) (2.7) (2.6) (2.6)
13 16 16 490 475 459
Great Lakes
(10.7) (10.1) (12.0) (14.1) (13.8) (13.8)
25 16 19 318 321 320
International
(20.7) (10.1) (14.3) (9.2) (9.4) (9.6)
26 43 28 122 142 152
Military
(21.5) (27.0) (21.1) (3.5) (4.1) (4.6)
2 7 2 117 115 102
New England
(1.7) (4.4) (1.5) (3.4) (3.4) (3.1)
Northwest 12 11 8 346 336 318
Mountain (9.9) (6.9) (6.0) (10.0) (9.8) (9.6)
14 17 20 677 665 655
Southern
(11.6) (10.7) (15.0) (19.5) (19.4) (19.7)
20 18 13 410 398 383
Southwest
(16.5) (11.3) (9.8) (11.8) (11.6) (11.5)
2 9 9 280 278 269
Western-Pacific
(1.7) (5.7) (6.8) (8.1) (8.1) (8.1)
Total 121 159 133 3,473 3,431 3,324

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