A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF SERIOUS PERSONAL INJURIES SUFFERED BY FULL TIME AND PART TIME SOLDIERS

Pope R.¹, Norman A.², Schram B.¹, Orr R.¹

¹Bond University, Tactical Research Unit, Gold Coast, Australia, ²Bond University, Health Sciences and Medicine, Gold Coast, Australia

Background: The training and occupational requirements of soldiers, be they full time or part time, place their bodies under high levels of physiological stress and leave them highly susceptible to serious injury. It is essential to determine incidence rates and obtain an understanding of serious injuries, to optimise risk management.

Purpose: The aims of this research were to determine the proportions of reported work health and safety incidents that constitute serious personal injuries (SPI) among Australian Regular Army (ARA) and Australian Army Reserve (ARES) personnel, and to examine how they occur.

Methods: Records of SPI’s sustained by ARA and ARES personnel between 01 July 2012 and 30 June 2014 were obtained from the Work Health, Safety, Compensation and Reporting database of the Australian Department of Defence. ARA and ARES population sizes were determined from Department of Defence Records. The mean annual number of SPI recorded for each of ARA and ARES populations was divided by the respective population size and then multiplied by 1000 to calculate SPI per 1000 personnel per year. The rates of SPI in ARA and ARES personnel associated with specific activity types and mechanisms and agencies of injury were also investigated. Ethics approval for this project was granted by the Australian Defence Human Research Ethics Committee (LERP14-024) and the Bond University Human Research Ethics Committee (RO1907).

Results: A total of 15065 Work Health and Safety incidents or injuries were reported across ARA and ARES military personnel. Of these incidents and injuries, 533 were reported as SPI (ARA n=489; ARES n=44) with ARA members reporting SPI 5.7 times more frequently than ARES members (ARA=17 SPI/1000 personnel/annum; ARA=3 SPI/1000 personnel/annum). Common mechanisms of SPI across ARA and ARES personnel combined were falls (2.1 per 1000-person years), contact with moving/stationary objects (1.8 per 1000 person-years), musculoskeletal stress while lifting/carrying or putting objects down (1.3 per 1000 person-years) and motor vehicle accidents (1.2 per 1000 person-years). Substantially higher rates of SPI occurred in physical training (1.2 per 1000 person-years) and combat training (1.1 per 1000 person-years) in both service types than occurred in manual handling (0.5 per 1000 person-years). Agencies of SPI were most commonly ‘other and not specified’ agencies (3.0 per 1000 person-years) followed by ‘other adults’ (1.0 per 1000 person-years) in ARA and Sporting equipment (0.3 per 1000 person-years) in ARES.

Conclusion(s): ARA members report more SPI than ARES members but ARA and ARES personnel suffer SPI through similar activities and mechanisms. SPI are acquired through various agencies which vary with service type.

Implications: · SPI prevention strategies would benefit from a focus on falls prevention, musculoskeletal resilience and specific mechanisms to reduce SPI during physical and combat training. · Future research should examine the effects of evidence based interventions aimed at reducing SPI amongst full-time and part-time soldiers.

Funding acknowledgements: This research was sponsored by a grant from the Defence Health Foundation

Topic: Musculoskeletal

Ethics approval: Ethics approval was granted by the Australian Defence (LERP14-024) and the Bond University (RO1907) Human Research Ethics Committees

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.