Comparison of Injuries between U.S. Army Active Duty Paratroopers and Non Paratrooper Soldiers, Calendar Years 2016 to 2018
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A 2019 review of military paratrooper injury studies found a wide range of injury rates (3 to 55 acute injuries per 1,000 jumps) that reflected differences in populations, equipment, and environmental conditions. Though considered plausible that military paratroopers have higher injury risk than non-paratroopers, existing studies had reported paratrooper injury rates as injuries/1000 jumps so they could not be compared to injury rates of non-paratroopers. In addition, paratrooper studies had focused only on acute (ACT) injuries, and had not addressed risk of cumulative microtraumatic (CMT) overuse injuries. OBJECTIVE: This investigation compared the types and direct medical costs of all injuries between a population of 31,621 Active Duty (AD) paratroopers and a group of 170,715 AD non-paratroopers over 3 years (CY2016--18). RESULTS: Non-paratroopers had 2.93 injuries/Soldier while paratroopers had 3.05 injuries/Soldier during the 3-year study period (roughly 1 injury/ Soldier/year in both populations). Injury odds ratios were greater among paratroopers (e.g., ORs of 1.3 - 1.5), though being a woman, African American older age were also shown to be risk factors. Both groups experienced more CMT injuries, but paratroopers had a greater proportion of ACT injuries (25 vs 20 ). Body sites most injured were also generally similar (leading sites being CMT injuries to the low back, knee, and shoulder). Though the study could not make direct causal associations, ACT head trauma and CMT shoulder injuries may be related to paratroopers exposures. Average mechanical injury costs were $1,000/injury for non-paratroopers vs $837/injury for paratroopers. ACT injuries cost 2 to 3 times higher than CMT injuries. Per injured soldier, costs were $944/non-paratrooper and $822/paratrooper, per year.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 30, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1098214
Entities
People
- B. H. Jones
- Catherine Rappole
- Esther Dada
- Lanna Forrest
- Matthew R Beymer
- Tyson Grier
- V. D. Hauschild
Organizations
- United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine