TY - JOUR
T1 - A Novel Biopsychosocial Approach to Neck Pain in Military Helicopter Aircrew
AU - Vail, Richard E.
AU - Harridge, Stephen D.R.
AU - Hodkinson, Peter D.
AU - Green, Nicholas D.C.
AU - Pavlou, Marousa
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial Disclosure Statement: The authors have no competing interests to declare.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Aerospace Medical Association, Alexandria, VA. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - INTRODUCTION: Flight-related neck pain (FRNP) is a frequently reported musculoskeletal complaint among military helicopter aircrew. However, despite its prevalence and suspected causes, little is known of the underpinning pain mechanisms or the impact of neck pain on aircrew's in-flight task performance. The biopsychosocial (BPS) approach to health, combined with the contemporary conceptualization of musculoskeletal pain, in which injury and pain are not necessarily synonymous, provides a relatively new holistic framework within which to consider the problem of FRNP in military helicopter aircrew. Combining these concepts, a new conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how biopsychosocial factors may influence pain perception, potentially affecting aircrews' capacity to process information and, therefore, threatening in-flight task performance. Recommendations are made for considering the underlying pain mechanisms of FRNP to aid prognoses and guide the development of holistic evidence-based countermeasures for FRNP in military helicopter aircrew. Development of instruments able to measure psychosocial factors, such as self-efficacy and functional ability, validated in the military helicopter aircrew population, would assist this task.
AB - INTRODUCTION: Flight-related neck pain (FRNP) is a frequently reported musculoskeletal complaint among military helicopter aircrew. However, despite its prevalence and suspected causes, little is known of the underpinning pain mechanisms or the impact of neck pain on aircrew's in-flight task performance. The biopsychosocial (BPS) approach to health, combined with the contemporary conceptualization of musculoskeletal pain, in which injury and pain are not necessarily synonymous, provides a relatively new holistic framework within which to consider the problem of FRNP in military helicopter aircrew. Combining these concepts, a new conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how biopsychosocial factors may influence pain perception, potentially affecting aircrews' capacity to process information and, therefore, threatening in-flight task performance. Recommendations are made for considering the underlying pain mechanisms of FRNP to aid prognoses and guide the development of holistic evidence-based countermeasures for FRNP in military helicopter aircrew. Development of instruments able to measure psychosocial factors, such as self-efficacy and functional ability, validated in the military helicopter aircrew population, would assist this task.
KW - aircrew
KW - biopsychosocial
KW - helicopter
KW - neck pain
KW - performance
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85105770627
U2 - 10.3357/AMHP.5449.2021
DO - 10.3357/AMHP.5449.2021
M3 - Article
C2 - 33875066
AN - SCOPUS:85105770627
SN - 2375-6314
VL - 92
SP - 333
EP - 341
JO - Aerospace medicine and human performance
JF - Aerospace medicine and human performance
IS - 5
ER -