Worldwide epidemiology of foot and ankle injuries during military training: a systematic review

Abstract

IntroductionMusculoskeletal foot and ankle injuries are commonly experienced by soldiers during military training. We performed a systematic review to assess epidemiological patterns of foot and ankle injuries occurring during military training.MethodsA review of the literature was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The search, done on 14 February 2019, resulted in 1603 reports on PubMed, 565 on Embase and 3 on the Cochrane Library. After reading the remaining full-text articles, we included 91 studies.ResultsAmong a population of 8 092 281 soldiers from 15 countries, 788 469 (9.74%) foot and ankle injuries were recorded. Among the 49 studies that reported on length of training, there were 36 770/295 040 (18.17%) injuries recorded among women and 248 660/1 501 672 (16.56%) injuries recorded among men over a pooled mean (±SD) training period of 4.51±2.34 months. Ankle injuries were roughly 7 times more common than foot injuries, and acute injuries were roughly 24 times more common than non-acute injuries. Our findings indicated that, during a 3-month training period, soldiers have a 3.14% chance of sustaining a foot and ankle injury. The incidence of foot or ankle injury during military parachutist training was 3.1 injuries per thousand jumps.ConclusionsOur findings provide an overview of epidemiological patterns of foot and ankle injuries during military training. These data can be used to compare incidence rates of foot and ankle injuries due to acute or non-acute mechanisms during training. Cost-effective methods of preventing acute ankle injuries and non-acute foot injuries are needed to address this problem.

Test–Retest Reliability and Translation of the Musculoskeletal Screening Protocol Questionnaire Used in the Swedish Armed Forces

“…Descriptive data from the MSP questionnaire showed that MSDs were most common in the low back, knee, lower leg, and foot. These data are in line with international reports 3 , 6 , 17 , 34 and corroborate previous findings of the 1-year and point prevalence of MSDs in male conscripts, 23 military personnel, 25 and male deployed soldiers 28 in the SwAF. In accordance with previous research, 28 the median intensity ratings were at the lower end.…”

Barriers and facilitators to implementation of musculoskeletal injury mitigation programmes for military service members around the world: a scoping review

“…Musculoskeletal injuries (MSK-I) in military service members are a significant problem worldwide, [1][2][3][4][5] adversely impacting work, combat readiness and national security. 6 In the USA and the UK, MSK-I are the leading cause for seeking medical care 1 and discharge from military service.…”