Neonatal Health Risks Among Children of Female Military Aviation Officers

INTRODUCTION: The aviation occupational environment may expose a developing fetus to intermittent hypoxia, high gravitational force, toxic materials, loud noise, high frequency vibrations, and galactic cosmic radiation. These exposures in animal models are associated with adverse neonatal outcomes. We sought to investigate whether a maternal military aviation career was associated with adverse neonatal health outcomes. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of female officer's children born in the Military Health System from October 2002 to December 2019. Female fixed-wing aviation officers were identified by the presence of an aviation occupation code prior to birth. Adverse neonatal outcomes were identified by International Classification of Diseases codes in in-patient medical records. Binomial regression was used to estimate the adjusted relative risk (aRR) of neonatal health outcomes. RESULTS: We identified 27,033 eligible births, with 1144 children born to female fixed-wing aviation officers and 25,889 to female nonaviation officers. Children of fixed-wing aviation officers had a significantly lower adjusted risk of overall neonatal growth abnormalities compared to children of nonaviation officers [aRR 0.74 (95% Confidence Interval 0.57-0.99)], but did not have significant differences in low birth weight [aRR 0.78 (0.56-1.10)] or small for gestational age [aRR 0.72 (0.46-1.10)] diagnoses. There were no statistically significant adverse neonatal outcomes. DISCUSSION: Children of female military fixed-wing aviation officers were at decreased risk of neonatal growth abnormalities compared to children of nonaviation officers and had no significant adverse neonatal health outcomes. Further research is needed to determine how flight impacts neonatal health outcomes. Stark CM, Sorensen IS, Royall M, Dorr M, Brown J, Dobson N, Salzman S, Susi A, Hisle-Gorman E, Huggins BH, Nylund CM. Neonatal health risks among children of female military aviation officers. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2024; 95(11):815-820.