OBESITY IN AVIATION MEDICINE

This paper will examine the impacts of obesity in aviation medicine. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the problems of obesity and being overweight as one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21^st century (1) and this will certainly lead to increasing numbers of obese aviators (or potential aviators) presenting for medical certification. These people may not realise the impact their increased weight could have on their flying career and is often going to be an incidental finding in their examination rather than the specific problem they present with. This leads to the question for the medical examiner, does being overweight/obese matter in aviation and how might it increase a person’s risk of incapacitation in the cockpit?