Objective  To examine physical health among male civil aviation aircrews in China and to provide evidences for health management and prevention of common diseases in aircrews.

  Methods  We collected the data on clinical examination and laboratory detections of 1 481 aircrews having routine checkup in a medical center during 2015. We analyzed physical indicators and disease prevalence among the aircrews using t test, Wilcoxon rank test, and Chi-square test.

  Results  For all diseases, the prevalence of hyperuricemia was the most detected abnormity, with a prevalence of 29.2%, followed by fatty liver and overweight, with the prevalence rate of 28.9% and 18.2%, respectively among the aircrews. For the aircrews aged 45 years and younger, a significant higher ratio of good overall health status was observed in the security guards compared to that in the pilots (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in abnormality rate of electrocardiogram and hearing test between security guards and pilots of all age groups (both P < 0.05). The prevalence of metabolic diseases such as hyperuricemia, hyperlipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and fatty liver were significantly lower in the security guards than in the pilots (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The overall health status of the aircrews is at a relative low level and mainly affected by hyperuricemia, fatty liver, and overweight; the results suggest that targeted health management strategies should be developed for the civil aviation aircrews.