Causes of Health Care Referals During Military Training

Introduction. Military personnel need health care. Knowledge about causes and frequency of healthcare utilization and correlated variables provides the planners a valuable data. Current study was performed to assess Causes of health care references and correlated variables during military training of sepah. Material and Methods. This cross sectional study was performed on military personnel who were passing training course in 2002 in Sepah military training centers in Tabriz, Varamin and Hamedan. Sample size was 2203. subjects were visited by the physicians. Demographic data including: age, educational level, marital status, history data including: past history of medical disease, surgery, fractures, medications, sports, wearing glasses, familial diseases, smoking habits, dominant hand, weight, BMI and physical examination including: plantar of foot curve, knee alignment, ligament flaccidity, visual acuity was registered. Health care utilization was assessed as the main outcome. Results. In the study period, 2636 visits (by 1146 subjects, 52.6% total ) to the outpatient clinic were registered. Mean visits for all, and clients were 1.19 and 2.3, respectively. Mean visits for soldiers and others was 2.4 ± 0.7 and 1.95 ± 0.6, respectively. Cause of visit was physical injury in 821 cases (71.6%), respiratory infections in 242 cases (21.1%) and others in 83 cases (7.3%). The kind of physical injury was musculoskeletal in 494 cases (60.1%), superficial injuries in 271 cases (33%) and cuttings in 56 subjects (6.9%). Health care utilization was seen more in those with ligament flaccidity (p=0.04). Health care utilization was not correlated with, educational level, past history of medical disease, surgery, fractures, medications, sports, wearing glasses, familial diseases, smoking habits, dominant hand, plantar of foot curve, knee alignment, or visual acuity ( p>0.05 ). Discussion. The results of this study showed that more than 50% of personnel in training period need health care, in a significant proportion, the cause is physical injuries. This study revealed that ligament flaccidity as a risk factor of health care utilization during military training period in Sepah. Screening of the military personnel before training period is suggested to decrease the need for healthcare.