A Detailed Analysis of Serious Personal Injuries Suffered by Full Time and Part Time Soldiers of the Australian Army

Schram, Ben; Pope, Rodney; Norman, Adam; Orr, Rob Marc

doi:10.1093/milmed/usz370

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The first finding coincides with those recently reported by Schram et al [20], where 21% of all serious personal injuries are attributed to soft tissue injuries in a combined (regular and reserve) group of Australian Army soldiers. In that study, soft tissue injuries were ranked as the second source of injury, after musculoskeletal injuries (32%) and before collated other injuries (16%).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Incidence and Predictors of Soft Tissue Injuries during Basic Combat Training

Nikolaidis

Havenetidis

2023

Sci

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Strenuous exercise, such as military training, is known to demand a high degree of physical performance and to cause injuries. The present study aimed to (a) monitor the incidence of soft tissue injuries (blisters, contusions, and lacerations) among cadets during Basic Combat Training (BCT), and (b) identify possible risk factors for these injuries. Participants were 315 first-grade cadets (women, n = 28; men, n = 287), recruited from the Hellenic Army Academy. Seven weeks of BCT resulted in an overall cadet injury rate of 24.1% (n = 76) with 13.7% being injured one time, whereas 10.4% of participants were injured 2–6 times. The incidence of injuries was 2.9 soft tissue injuries per 1000 training hours. The logistic regression model using sex, being an athlete, nationality, weight, height, body mass index, and percentage of body fat (BF) to predict soft tissue injury was not statistically significant (χ2(7) = 5.315, p = 0.622). The results of this study showed that BCT caused a large number of soft tissue injuries similar to the number reported for musculoskeletal injuries. In conclusion, following BCT, soft tissue injury characteristics (occurrence, severity, treatment) are similar to those applied in musculoskeletal injuries for Army cadets. However, risk factors such as sex, nationality, and BF have not been related to soft tissue injury prediction as previously shown for musculoskeletal injuries for the same sample group.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Incidence and Predictors of Soft Tissue Injuries during Basic Combat Training

Nikolaidis

Havenetidis

2023

Sci

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“…Of concern is the number of injury records in which specific data elements were not entered, especially for serious injuries. Serious injuries may come at a risk of medical discharge, permanent disability, and other long term health ramifications, highlighting the necessity of recognizing them in the first instance, prior to initiating strategies to reduce them [ 9 ]. Efforts to reduce these injuries are ineffective if they are ill informed, and missing data detracts from the available information from which to determine preventive strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ADF is comprised of Navy, Army, and Air Force services, with female personnel being represented the least in the permanent Army (14.2%) when compared to the Navy (21.4%) and Air Force (23%). Despite investigations reporting injuries in Army basic training [ 6 ] and sport [ 7 ], explorations of near misses and exposures [ 8 ], and comparisons of full time and reservist populations [ 9 ], no comprehensive comparisons of injury profiles of female and male soldiers have been conducted to date, outside of load carriage injuries [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A profile of injuries suffered by female soldiers serving in the Australian Army

2022

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Introduction Female soldiers comprise an important component of any modern army, yet little research has been performed to investigate differences in the profiles of injuries reported by qualified female and male army personnel. Aim The aim of this study was to compare injury rates and patterns between female and male soldiers of the Australian Regular Army (ARA). Methods Data pertaining to all injuries reported by ARA members over a two-year period were accessed from the SENTINEL database and analysed descriptively. Findings regarding injury patterns were reported by most common location, nature, mechanism, and activity being performed at the time of injury. Injury incidence rates (IR) were calculated based on population size, and injury incidence rate ratios (IRR) comparing female and male injury rates were determined. Results A total of 8750 injuries were recorded across the two-year time period (2018–2020) of the study (minor injuries: n = 1766 female, n = 6870 male; serious injuries: n = 19 female, n = 95 male). Higher incidence rates of minor injuries were reported for female soldiers (IR = 20.75 injuries/100 soldiers/year) when compared to male soldiers (IR = 13.60 injuries/100 soldiers/year), with an IRR of 1.53 [95% CI = 1.46–1.60]. More serious injuries were reported at a similar rate between female (IR = 0.22/100 soldiers/year) and male soldiers (IR = 0.21/100 soldiers/year), with an IRR of 1.05 [95% CI = 0.65–1.72]. Female soldiers tended to report more ankle injuries than male soldiers who reported more knee injuries. Physical training and combat training were the most common causes of injury for both sexes. Discussion There were subtle differences in body locations of minor injuries within female and male soldiers. Both minor and more serious injury profiles were otherwise similar between sexes. Therefore, strategies required to minimise injuries in female soldiers may be similar in many respects to strategies required for male soldiers but require some differences to account for the subtle differences in body locations of injury, and so to ensure effectiveness across all personnel.

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“…These symptoms are also associated with overtraining and have been reported in military training environments [ 6 – 8 ]. For military organisations, insufficient recovery and excessive training loads can increase injury rates [ 9 ], and lead to decreased operational capability and increased health care costs [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of military training stress on hormone response and recovery

et al. 2022

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Objectives Military personnel are required to train and operate in challenging multi-stressor environments, which can affect hormonal levels, and subsequently compromise performance and recovery. The aims of this project were to 1) assess the impact of an eight-day military training exercise on salivary cortisol and testosterone, 2) track the recovery of these hormones during a period of reduced training. Methods This was a prospective study whereby 30 soldiers (n = 27 men, n = 3 women) undergoing the Australian Army combat engineer ‘Initial Employment Training’ course were recruited and tracked over a 16-day study period which included an eight-day military training exercise. Non-stimulated saliva samples were collected at waking, 30 min post waking, and bedtime on days 1, 5, 9, 13, 15; measures of subjective load were collected on the same days. Sleep was measured continuously via actigraphy, across four sequential study periods; 1) baseline (PRE: days 1–4), 2) field training with total sleep deprivation (EX-FIELD: days 5–8), 3) training at simulated base camp with sleep restriction (EX-BASE: days 9–12), and 4) a three-day recovery period (REC: days 13–15). Results Morning cortisol concentrations were lower following EX-FIELD (p<0.05) compared to the end of REC. Training in the field diminished testosterone concentrations (p<0.05), but levels recovered within four days. Bedtime testosterone/cortisol ratios decreased following EX-FIELD and did not return to pre-training levels. Conclusions The sensitivity of testosterone levels and the testosterone/cortisol ratio to the period of field training suggests they may be useful indicators of a soldier’s state of physiological strain, or capacity, however inter-individual differences in response to a multi-stressor environment need to be considered.

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A Detailed Analysis of Serious Personal Injuries Suffered by Full Time and Part Time Soldiers of the Australian Army

Cited by 4 publications

References 30 publications

Incidence and Predictors of Soft Tissue Injuries during Basic Combat Training

Incidence and Predictors of Soft Tissue Injuries during Basic Combat Training

A profile of injuries suffered by female soldiers serving in the Australian Army

Impact of military training stress on hormone response and recovery

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