Self-reported pain or injury from equipment used on military deployment

Information about pain and injury from equipment on a particular deployment is not disaggregated in the literature; thus, the nature of the issue is unclear.

To determine the prevalence of pain or injury during a particular deployment that military personnel attributed to equipment they used on this deployment; and to document the types of equipment they identified, the type of pain or injury and how they thought the pain or injury occurred.

This paper analyses data from a deployment and health survey of Australian Defence Force personnel. The participants are 8932 personnel who deployed to Iraq and 6534 who deployed to Afghanistan. Participants indicated whether they experienced pain or injury from equipment they used on deployment and detailed their experiences in response to an open-ended question (n = 563).

Sixteen per cent of Iraq-deployed and 21% of Afghanistan-deployed participants reported pain or injury from equipment they used on deployment. Body armour was the most common equipment identified; however, a wide range of equipment was related to pain or injury. A new finding is that pain or injury related to armour was attributed to its wear in vehicles and during vehicle ingress or egress.

Knowledge of the nature of pain or injury related to equipment used on deployment may help inform improved designs and practices to reduce or prevent avoidable harm to serving personnel.