Association Between Cumulative G-force Exposure and Cervical Spine Degenerative Changes

The prevalence of IVD degeneration and IVD herniations increases in the early phases of fighter pilots' career. Only the incidence of IVD herniations correlated with FI values and the correlation was negative. The negative correlation may be attributed to avoidance behavior due to neck pain, which was not measured in our study, or other unmeasured confounding factors. This was the first study to compare individual G-force exposure levels to high-quality MRI data over a follow-up of several years. Finnish fighter pilots are known to report increasing cervical symptoms during the Hawk training phase, but longer follow-up periods are likely needed to determine the association between G-force exposure levels and cervical degenerative changes.