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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

Insights

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.

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.
Abstract

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