Redefining Projections of Disease and Nonbattle Injury Patient Condition Code Distributions with Casualty Data from Operation
Abstract
Problem Modeling and simulation applications require accurate estimates of the frequency and types of illnesses and injuries incurred during military operations in order to assess medical resource needs. These estimates, or patient streams, include projections of the wounded in action, as well as projections of disease and nonbattle injury (DNBI) patient condition code frequencies. Although the primary focus of military medical personnel is to treat combat casualties with life-threatening injuries, historically there have been more DNBI casualties during military operations. As such, military medical planners need a systematic, structured methodology that can be used to generate patient streams for DNBI injury casualties. Objective The objective of this study was to describe DNBI distributions among Marine Corps personnel in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) by (1) phase of the operation, (2) branch of service, and (3) gender. These results were then used to develop a methodology that would allow users to project DNBI patient streams. Approach Data from the Navy Marine Corps Combat Trauma Registry database and the Joint Patient Tracking Application were used to identify US military DNBI casualties during the time period of 01 March 2003 to 30 April 2005 from OIF. Casualties were categorized by the 17 major ICD-9 diagnostic groups. Frequencies, standardized residuals, and chi-square statistics were used to compare the diagnostic categories among casualties by phase of operation, branch of service, and gender. Results The diagnostic disease categories varied by phase of OIF, branch of service, and gender. Overall, there were a higher percentage of nonbattle injuries during the Major Combat Phase and a higher percentage of musculoskeletal disorders during the Post Combat Phase. Compared with all other services, the US Marine Corps had the highest percentage of injuries as well as the lowest percentage of musculoskeletal disorders.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA457697
Entities
People
- A. L. Wade
- C. Magno
- J. M. Zouris
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center