TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Military occupations most affected by head/sensory injuries and the potential job impact of those injuries
JO  - Military medicine
A1  - Lawson, Ben D.
A1  - Kass, Steven J.
A1  - Dhillon, Maj Kieran K.
A1  - Milam, Lana S.
A1  - Cho, Timothy H.
A1  - Rupert, Angus H.
SP  - 887
EP  - 894
VL  - 181
IS  - 8
N2  - OBJECTIVE: Identifying Department of Defense (DoD) occupations affected by injuries to the head and sensory systems. <br><br>METHODS: We explored the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database to identify occupations with the highest incidence of injured personnel, then ranked how frequently they occurred in a top 10 list for each of four injury categories (head/brain, visual, auditory, vestibular) encompassing 25 injury codes. Across all four categories, the most affected occupations were identified, among which we chose three Army combat-related military occupational specialties (MOSs) for detailed study. We identified skills needed to perform these MOSs and explored whether MOS-critical deficits could be expected following the injuries. <br><br>RESULTS: Some DoD occupations are more likely to suffer from these injuries, including Infantry, Combat Operations Control, Artillery/Gunnery, Motor Vehicle Operator, Combat Engineering, and Armor/Amphibious. Within these DoD occupations, we explored three Army combatant MOSs: Infantry (11B), Cavalry Scout (19D), and Artillery (13B), confirming that these jobs are likely to be disrupted by injuries within the four categories. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Head and sensory injuries disproportionately affect certain military occupations. Relatively few injuries disrupt combat-related abilities that are job critical (e.g., firearms operation) and job specific (e.g., Artillery gunnery problems); these should be the focus of efforts to improve rehabilitation and RTD outcomes.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0026-4075
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00184
ID  - ref1
ER  -