A post-disaster follow-up of health-related outcomes in US naval personnel

Abstract

Abstract : Adverse physical and psychological health outcomes following disasters have been widely reported in epidemiologic literature. However, these studies have primarily examined disasters in the civilian population. Military personnel are at particular risk of involvement in disasters because of the hazardous nature of their duty. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of disasters (events involving multiple deaths of injury hospitalizations) on the health status of Navy personnel by examining the occurrence of medical and psychological outcomes in the post-disaster period, and to compare them with a group of patients who were hospitalized for non- disaster related causes, to see what the effect of the disaster was on the case group. Cases and controls did not differ significantly in their post-disasters medical event rates and diagnoses. However, it was found that psychiatric diagnoses occurred earlier in the post-disaster period among cases than among controls. Additionally, the risk of post-disaster accident-related diagnoses was significantly elevated in the 17-19 year old group.