The project, named ‘Multidimensional evaluation of the effects of high-altitude work on physiological and neurocognitive variables in workers of the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería)’, will be conducted in an environment at 2,168 meters altitude with less oxygen, low temperatures, and demanding climatic conditions. The study, funded by the Observatory itself, will involve the Neurology, Cardiology, Nephrology, and Pulmonology departments of the HUT, along with the UAL, bringing together doctors, clinical psychologists, and nurses.
Tests will be performed on the 40 workers at three points: at sea level, on the third day of their stay at the Observatory, and 48 hours after returning. Blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, and lung capacity will be measured, blood and urine analyses will be conducted, and tests for attention, memory, processing speed, and mood will be administered. The study, lasting approximately eight months, poses minimal risk to participants and aims to design occupational health surveillance protocols, improve shift planning, and enhance safety in high-demand mental work at altitude.
At the project's presentation, Gracia Castro de Luna, project coordinator and coordinator of the Degree in Medicine at the University of Almería, and Jesús Aceituno, director of the Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory, highlighted the study's novelty. Castro emphasized the goal of identifying physiological, not pathological, adaptations and obtaining valuable information for the workers, describing the project as “very innovative” and a result of collaboration between multiple entities.
Aceituno stressed that the study is not based on a health problem but on the desire for serious scientific knowledge to improve staff working conditions. He highlighted the facility's self-sufficiency and the diversity of work shifts, which will be considered. He pointed out the importance of evaluating how high-altitude conditions affect people, something that had not been exhaustively studied until now, unlike the effects on telescopes and instruments.
As background, studies with miners in Chile were cited, which linked altitude exposure to changes in memory, attention, sleep, and cardiovascular and renal functions. However, this integrated project between the UAL, the HUT, and the Calar Alto Observatory is the first to evaluate all these systems simultaneously in the same individuals, offering an innovative approach and advancing scientific knowledge on the effects of high-altitude work.
