Background: The transient nature of military life coupled with environmental and psychosocial stressors increase the risk for alcohol misuse and abuse among active duty (AD) military service members and recent epidemiological studies demonstrate high rates of heavy drinking among AD personnel. Over the past decade, Department of Defense health care systems have observed increases in the utilization of substance use services among military personnel demobilizing from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Given the high rates of heavy drinking and increased use of substance use services in this population of AD personnel, the purpose of this study was to investigate how to best translate and implement an effective alcohol abuse prevention intervention tool (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment [SBIRT]) used in civilian populations to a military emergency department (ED) setting.
Methods: We conducted focus groups with ED staff as well as short interviews with AD personnel at a Naval Medical Center in the southwestern United States to determine the suitability of SBIRT with military populations as well as how to best translate SBIRT to a military hospital setting.
Findings: Participants expressed support for utilizing civilian health educators to conduct the SBIRT intervention; however, many were concerned with issues of confidentiality and were skeptical of whether AD would speak truthfully about alcohol consumption.
Conclusions: Results of this formative research study clearly indicate the implementation and translation of SBIRT into a military medical setting require attention to issues related to confidentiality, the veracity of alcohol reporting, as well as use of civilians over AD military personnel to deliver the SBIRT intervention. Furthermore, most participants expressed support for the SBIRT model and felt it could be implemented, with caveats, into a military health care setting such as an ED.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00333 | DOI Listing |
Mil Med
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Introduction: Children are among the most vulnerable populations affected by armed conflicts, yet there is limited data on the preparedness of military medical personnel to care for pediatric combat trauma casualties in austere or large-scale combat operations. This study aimed to assess the confidence, training needs, and resource requirements of military medical providers who have managed pediatric patients during deployment.
Materials And Methods: This IRB-exempt, cross-sectional mixed-methods study used a survey created via a modified Delphi method with input from subject matter experts.
Am J Ind Med
January 2025
Defense Health Agency, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
Objective: This study examines the incidence of injuries among active component service members in Military Working Dog (MWD) handler occupations compared to three other active component occupational groups.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted with a total of 2,524,092 active component service members including, 3935 MWD handlers, 2025 veterinary personnel, 113,413 military police, and 2,404,719 all other active component service members (ACSM). Incidence rate and incident rate ratios of injuries were determined.
Acta Med Indones
October 2024
Division of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia - Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia.
In 2023, Indonesia's Ministry of Health reported that nearly 75% of districts and cities in the country were free from malaria transmission, meaning 90% of the population lived in malaria-free zones. However, Papua Province, which accounts for only 1.5% of Indonesia's population, continues to contribute over 90% of the national malaria cases, with more than 16,000 reported cases in 2023.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Recruits are exposed to high levels of psychological and physical stress during the special forces selection period, resulting in dropout rates of up to 80%. To identify who likely drops out, we assessed a group of 249 recruits, every week of the selection program, on their self-efficacy, motivation, experienced psychological and physical stress, and recovery. Using linear regression as well as state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, we aimed to build a model that could meaningfully predict dropout while remaining interpretable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Mil Health
January 2025
Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
Background: Gastrointestinal illnesses are common during military training and operational deployments. We compared the incidence and burden of travellers' diarrhoea (TD) reported by British service personnel (SP) during recent training exercises in Kenya and Oman.
Methods: SP completed a validated anonymous questionnaire regarding clinical features of any diarrhoeal illness, associated risk factors and impact on work capability after 6-week training exercises in 2018 in Kenya and 2018-2019 in Oman.
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