INJURIES AND INJURY RISK FACTORS AMONG ARMOR BATTALION SOLDIERS AT FORT RILEY, KANSAS.

Abstract

PURPOSE To determine injury rates and contributing risk factors for injuries among soldiers in an armor battalion at Fort Riley, KS. METHODS We reviewed medical records for 426 active duty male soldiers. Musculoskeletal injury data were recorded for events that resulted in clinic visits for medical care occurring at Fort Riley during a 1-year period. The battalion provided Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores and soldier demographic data. Cox regression was used to examine time-to-first injury with age, race, rank, body mass index (BMI), and physical fitness (push-ups, sit-ups, and 2-mile run time) as covariates. Relative risk (RR) values compared time-to-first injury between different levels of the covariates and are reported with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS There were 139 injured soldiers (46 injured/100 person-years at risk) with 205 different injuries (68 injuries/100 person-years at risk) resulting in 4,747 days of limited duty (15.8 days/person-year at risk). There were 397 injury clinic visits (132 visits/100 person-years at risk). Seventy-six percent of injuries (n = 106) occurred to a lower extremity and 83% of injuries (n = 116) resulted in limited duty. Both univariate and multivariate analysis indicated high BMI (highest v. lowest quartile, RR = 1.99, CI = 1.17–3.37) and lower rank (lower enlisted status v. officers, RR = 2.28, CI = 1.05–4.95) were risk factors for injury (RR and CI for multivariate analysis). CONCLUSION For this group of soldiers, injuries accounted for approximately two weeks of limited duty per soldier per year. BMI and military rank were independently associated with an increased risk of injury.