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Traumatic deaths during U.S. Armed Forces basic training, 1977-2001.

Stephanie L Scoville1, John W Gardner, Robert N Potter

  • 1U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, Directorate of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, USA. Stephanie.Scoville@na.amedd.army.mil

American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|March 18, 2004
PubMed
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Military recruit mortality rates are lower than civilian rates, with fewer traumatic deaths due to training supervision. Suicide is the leading cause of traumatic death among recruits.

Area of Science:

  • Military Health Surveillance
  • Mortality Research
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Established a Recruit Mortality Registry linked to the Department of Defense Medical Mortality Registry for comprehensive surveillance.
  • Registry captures deaths during enlisted basic military training.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze mortality data for enlisted military recruits from 1977-2001.
  • To compare recruit mortality rates with U.S. civilian populations.

Main Methods:

  • Identified and confirmed recruit deaths using redundant sources (1977-2001).
  • Collected demographic, circumstantial, and medical information for each case.
  • Calculated mortality rates per 100,000 recruit-years using Defense Manpower Data Center accession data.

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Main Results:

  • 276 recruit deaths occurred between 1977-2001; mortality rates were less than half of same-age U.S. civilians.
  • Traumatic deaths (suicide, unintentional injury, homicide) accounted for 28% of recruit deaths, significantly lower than active duty military and civilian populations.
  • Army had the highest age-adjusted traumatic death rates; suicide was the predominant cause (60%), followed by unintentional injuries (35%) and homicide (5%).
  • Men had a more than triple age-adjusted traumatic mortality rate compared to women (rate ratio=3.9; p=0.01).

Conclusions:

  • Recruits exhibit a lower proportion of traumatic deaths compared to the general military and civilian populations.
  • Factors contributing to lower traumatic deaths may include close supervision, safety emphasis, and restricted access to alcohol and vehicles during training.