Injuries before and after deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Area of Science:

• Military medicine
• Injury epidemiology
• Public health

Background:

• Military personnel undergo deployments to combat zones, necessitating an understanding of their health outcomes.
• Outpatient injuries represent a significant burden on military healthcare systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the incidence of outpatient injuries in soldiers before and after deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
• To identify risk factors for post-deployment injuries.

Main Methods:

• An observational study design was employed.
• Data on outpatient medical encounters were collected from the Defense Medical Surveillance System for soldiers deployed with the 10th Mountain Division (Afghanistan) and 1st Cavalry Division (Iraq).
• Injury incidence was analyzed for two 90-day periods pre-deployment and two 90-day periods post-deployment.

Main Results:

• Both deployment groups exhibited an increase in the overall incidence of outpatient injuries post-deployment.
• The Afghanistan group's injury incidence rose from 14.1% to 23.4% across the study periods.
• The Iraq group's injury incidence increased from 15.1% to 43.4% across the study periods.
• Soldiers with pre-deployment injuries were 1.4 to 3.0 times more likely to sustain post-deployment injuries.

Conclusions:

• A significant increase in outpatient injury incidence was observed following military deployments.
• Pre-existing injuries are a key predictor of post-deployment injury risk.
• Findings underscore the importance of pre-deployment injury screening and post-deployment injury surveillance.