AIM: To research the reasonability of current criteria on distant vision anddiopter for recruiting civil aviators in China.

METHODS: The data about distant vision and diopter of 1901 aviators, including flight majors and aviators in active service participating in physical examination of Civil Aviation Flight University of China from 2006 to 2013, were collected. ANOVA and LSD were used to compare the differences between distant vision and diopter among different groups. The Spearman correlation coefficients of distant vision(≥0.1 vs ≥0.3)and diopter(0.00 to -3.00D)were calculated.

RESULTS: The diopter of civil aviators in China increased with distant vision decreased. The correlation between distant vision and diopter(0.00 to -3.00D)among distant vision ≥0.3's population(0.4<r<0.5)was worse than that among distant vision ≥0.1's population(0.6<r<0.7).

CONCLUSION: The current eye standard of recruiting civil aviators in China is reasonable to consider both distant vision and diopter, but the standard for distant vision is higher. Further research is proposed to explore the proper standard of distant vision that matches the diopter standard.