Work Related Injury/Illness & Type
We asked the flight attendants about the number of work-related injuries or illnesses (e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or more) they experienced over the past year. Close to half of flight attendants (47%) told us they experienced one or more work-related injuries/illnesses in the past year and 29% said they had more than one injury in the last year. (n = 3,667)
Distribution of the frequency of the work injury or illness
- Musculoskeletal: strain or sprain, joint aches and pains or fracture, contusion, laceration
- Respiratory: trouble breathing, infection
- Neurological: dizziness, headaches, numbness and tingling, fatigue
- Psychological: anxiety, stress, depression
- Cardiac: chest pain or tightness, high blood pressure, clots
- Other
- musculoskeletal in nature (35%)
- respiratory (21%)
- neurological problems (17%)
- psychological problems (14%)
Of the 47% of flight attendants who experienced one or more injuries, we asked them to describe their injuries. If the flight attendant had more than one injury, he/she could choose a description for up to the first 3 injuries. In addition, more than one description could be selected if the injury/illness involved multiple health effects. The choices for the description of the injury included the following:
We found that the large majority of problems were:

