Deployment Surveillance Summary, U.S. Army Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn/Operation Enduring Freedom, 2011. Injury Prevention Report

Abstract

Abstract : The aims of this report on injuries to Soldiers engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OI)/Operation New Dawn (OND) are to: a.) Describe the relative impact of injury compared to that of disease for calendar year (CY) 2011. b.) Document non-battle injury (NBI) rates and trends from 2003 to 2011. c.) Identify leading causes and diagnoses of NBI for CY 2011. d.) Summarize key U.S. Army Public Health Command (USAPHC) CY 2011 analytic deployment surveillance projects on injuries among deployed Soldiers. e.) Make recommendations for the improvement of Army injury prevention based on data analyzed. Routinely collected air evacuation, inpatient hospitalization, and casualty data provide the basis for deployment injury surveillance during current Army deployments in support of OIF/OND and OEF. NBI was notably the most significant cause of medical evacuations. As in previous years, the proportion of air-evacuated NBIs is larger than that of battle injuries (BIs) and any other single category of disease and it greatly impacts readiness. As in CY 2010, NBI was second to digestive diseases for OND hospitalizations and second to BIs for OEF hospitalizations. Similar to previous reports, the leading causes of these NBIs indicate that many are likely preventable. Timely reporting of injury rates, types, and causes should allow commanders and Army leaders to focus their attention on prevention strategies and policies during ongoing operations.