Psychophysiological Responses of Pilots in Hypoxia Training at 7000 and 7500 m

INTRODUCTION: We compared the physiological responses, psychomotor performances, and hypoxia symptoms between 7000 m and 7500 m (23,000 and 24,600 ft) exposure to develop a safer hypoxia training protocol.

METHODS: In altitude chamber, 66 male pilots were exposed to 7000 and 7500 m. Heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation were continuously monitored. Psychomotor performance was assessed using the computational task. The hypoxic symptoms were investigated by a questionnaire.

RESULTS: The mean duration time of hypoxia was 323.0 56.5 s at 7000 m and 218.2 63.3 s at 7500 m. The 6-min hypoxia training was completed by 57.6% of the pilots and 6.1% of the pilots at 7000 m and at 7500 m, respectively. There were no significant differences in pilots heart rates and psychomotor performance between the two exposures. The S_po₂ response at 7500 m was slightly severer than that at 7000 m. During the 7000 m exposure, pilots experienced almost the same symptoms and similar frequency order as those during the 7500 m exposure.

CONCLUSIONS: There were concordant symptoms, psychomotor performance, and very similar physiological responses between 7000 m and 7500 m during hypoxia training. The results indicated that 7000-m hypoxia awareness training might be an alternative to 7500-m hypoxia training with lower DCS risk and longer experience time.

Wen D, Tu L, Wang G, Gu Z, Shi W, Liu X. Psychophysiological responses of pilots in hypoxia training at 7000 and 7500 m. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(10):785789.