The impact of healthy motion seating on lower-limb blood flow and blood pressure response to simulated long-haul air travel

Prolonged sitting inherent to long-haul air travel can acutely decrease lower-limb blood flow and increase brachial blood pressure. Healthy motion seating (HMS), which passively alters sitting interface pressure and posture, is a promising technology which may attenuate the deleterious effects of long-haul air travel. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of an innovative airplane passenger seat motion feature, aerospace HMS, on lower-limb blood flow and blood pressure in response to 6.5 h of simulated long-haul air travel. In a randomised cross-over design, 19 healthy adults completed a 6.5 h long-haul flight simulation in aerospace seating equipped with (HMS) and without (CON) healthy motion technology. Superficial femoral artery blood flow, brachial blood pressure, and perceptions of mood disturbance, pain and discomfort were measured before and after flight simulation. In linear mixed models there was a significant interaction (condition × time) effect for superficial femoral artery blood flow, with a decrease in lower-limb blood flow in CON (-22.4 mL/min; 95% CI: -2.41, -42.39; P = 0.032) but not HMS (3.7 mL/min; 95% CI: -16.3, 23.67; P = 0.720) across the 6.5 h flight simulation. There were no interaction, group nor time effects for blood pressure. Mood, pain and discomfort all worsened across the 6.5 h flight simulation (time, all P < 0.05), but there were no interaction nor group effects. The passive alterations in sitting interface pressure, posture and movement created by aerospace HMS can prevent prolonged sitting-induced reductions in local lower-limb blood flow typical of long-haul air travel.