Musculoskeletal injuries in British Army recruits: a prospective study of incidence in different Infantry Regiments

Sharma, J, Dixon, J, Dalal, S, Heagerty, R and Spears, I ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4982-2841, 2017. Musculoskeletal injuries in British Army recruits: a prospective study of incidence in different Infantry Regiments. Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 163 (6), pp. 406-411. ISSN 0035-8665

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Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal injuries and attrition incurred during basic military training are a significant socioeconomic burden across many Defence Forces. In order to plan an injury prevention strategy, the purpose of this study was to quantify the regiment-specific musculoskeletal injury patterns and training outcomes.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study of the Parachute (n=734), Guards (n=1044), Line (n=3472) and Gurkha (n=458) Regiments of the British Army recruits during a 26-week basic military training programme over a 2-year period. The participant demographic characteristics were: age 18.9 years (SD±2.3), height 176.5 cm (SD±7.80), mass 69 kg (SD±9.7) and body mass index 22.14 kg/m2 (SD±2.5).

Results: The incidence of injuries (86%, 46%, 48% and 10%) was significantly different (p<0.001) as were the first time pass out rates (p=0.02) of 38%, 51%, 56% and 98% for Parachute, Guards, Line and Gurkha, respectively. Overuse injuries were more frequently reported than both acute and recurrent injuries in all regiments (X2=688.01, p<0.01).

Conclusions: The disparity in injury incidence and training outcome between Infantry Regiments suggests that the demands of training be taken into account when devising injury prevention strategies.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps
Creators:	Sharma, J., Dixon, J., Dalal, S., Heagerty, R. and Spears, I.
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
Date:	2017
Volume:	163
Number:	6
ISSN:	0035-8665
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1136/jramc-2016-000657 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	09 Aug 2019 14:36
Last Modified:	09 Aug 2019 14:36
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/37212

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