Laura A Robinson, C R Colin, K S Smith, M W Greene, A D Frugé
{"title":"Diet quality is associated with nutrition knowledge and physical activity in the US military veterans enrolled in university programmes.","authors":"Laura A Robinson, C R Colin, K S Smith, M W Greene, A D Frugé","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002525","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002525","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Military veterans are at greater risk for chronic medical conditions, many of which are associated with greater body mass index (BMI). Detrimental changes to diet and physical activity (PA) levels after separation from military service contribute to this disparity which may be mitigated by nutrition education (NE) during service.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a survey in student veterans attending two southeastern US universities to determine current nutrition knowledge and hypothesised that NE received during time of service would be associated with better current diet quality (DQ), PA and BMI. Food group knowledge (FGK), and nutrient knowledge, DQ measured by Healthy Eating Index (HEI), and PA reported in metabolic equivalent minutes per week (MET-min/week) were assessed using previously validated questionnaires. Height and weight were also self-reported to calculate BMI. Differences in these variables between NE groups were assessed using Mann-Whitney U tests. Change in DQ, PA and BMI were assessed with Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Stepwise backward regression analysis was used to identify significant predictors related to HEI and BMI status.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Sixty-three out of 83 total responses were valid. Respondents were 60% male, 81% white, 43% and 27% served in the Army and Navy, respectively and 30% reported receiving NE while in the military. Veterans who received NE while serving did not have higher FGK, nutrition knowledge, current DQ, MET-min/week or BMI than their counterparts. Overall, respondents reported decreased MET-min/week (p<0.001), increased BMI (p=0.01) and no change in DQ. PA (p=0.014) and FGK (p<0.001) were significant predictors of current DQ, while no variables significantly predicted current BMI.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Inverse relationships between BMI and PA were observed after separation from duty. These results warrant the development and implementation of effective lifestyle interventions in veterans to prevent chronic disease and improve quality of life.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"110-115"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138488794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert M Barker-Davies, O O'Sullivan, D A Holdsworth, P Ladlow, A Houston, R Chamley, A Greenhalgh, E D Nicol, A N Bennett
{"title":"How long is Long-COVID? Symptomatic improvement between 12 and 18 months in a prospective cohort study.","authors":"Robert M Barker-Davies, O O'Sullivan, D A Holdsworth, P Ladlow, A Houston, R Chamley, A Greenhalgh, E D Nicol, A N Bennett","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002500","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002500","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>COVID-19 infection can precede, in a proportion of patients, a prolonged syndrome including fatigue, exercise intolerance, mood and cognitive problems. This study aimed to describe the profile of fatigue-related, exercise-related, mood-related and cognitive-related outcomes in a COVID-19-exposed group compared with controls.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>113 serving UK Armed Forces participants were followed up at 5, 12 (n=88) and 18 months (n=70) following COVID-19. At 18 months, 56 were in the COVID-19-exposed group with 14 matched controls. Exposed participants included hospitalised (n=25) and community (n=31) managed participants. 43 described at least one of the six most frequent symptoms at 5 months: fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, joint pain, exercise intolerance and anosmia. Participants completed a symptom checklist, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), the National Institute for Health cognitive battery and a 6-minute walk test (6MWT). PROMs included the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Patient Checklist-5 (PCL-5) for post-traumatic stress.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>At 5 and 12 months, exposed participants presented with higher PHQ-9, PCL-5 and FAS scores than controls (ES (effect size) ≥0.25, p≤0.04). By 12 months, GAD-7 was not significantly different to controls (ES <0.13, p=0.292). Remaining PROMs lost significant difference by 18 months (ES ≤0.11, p≥0.28). No significant differences in the cognitive scales were observed at any time point (F=1.96, p=0.167). At 5 and 12 months, exposed participants recorded significantly lower distances on the 6MWT (η<sub>p</sub> <sup>2</sup>≥0.126, p<0.01). 6MWT distance lost significant difference by 18 months (η<sub>p</sub> <sup>2</sup><0.039, p>0.15).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This prospective cohort-controlled study observed adverse outcomes in depression, post-traumatic stress, fatigue and submaximal exercise performance up to 12 months but improved by 18-month follow-up, in participants exposed to COVID-19 compared with a matched control group.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"126-133"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12015064/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41163187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Crambert, S Ballivet de Régloix, A Villeneuve, J-B Morvan
{"title":"Impact of wearing a medical mask on pure tone audiometry results during military medical fitness assessments.","authors":"Anna Crambert, S Ballivet de Régloix, A Villeneuve, J-B Morvan","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002581","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002581","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"180-181"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50163301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jane Jomy, P Jani, F Sheikh, R Charide, J Mah, R J Couban, B Kligler, A J Darzi, B K White, T Hoppe, J W Busse, D Zeraatkar
{"title":"Health measurement instruments and their applicability to military veterans: a systematic review.","authors":"Jane Jomy, P Jani, F Sheikh, R Charide, J Mah, R J Couban, B Kligler, A J Darzi, B K White, T Hoppe, J W Busse, D Zeraatkar","doi":"10.1136/military-2022-002219","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2022-002219","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Accurate measurement of health status is essential to assess veterans' needs and the effects of interventions directed at improving veterans' well-being. We conducted a systematic review to identify instruments that measure subjective health status, considering four components (ie, physical, mental, social or spiritual well-being).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, we searched CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, JSTOR, ERIC, Social Sciences Abstracts and ProQuest in June 2021 for studies reporting on the development or evaluation of instruments measuring subjective health among outpatient populations. We assessed risk of bias with the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments tool and engaged three veteran partners to independently assess the clarity and applicability of identified instruments.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of 5863 abstracts screened, we identified 45 eligible articles that reported health-related instruments in the following categories: general health (n=19), mental health (n=7), physical health (n=8), social health (n=3) and spiritual health (n=8). We found evidence for adequate internal consistency for 39 instruments (87%) and good test-retest reliability for 24 (53%) instruments. Of these, our veteran partners identified five instruments for the measurement of subjective health (Military to Civilian Questionnaire (M2C-Q), Veterans RAND 36-Item Health Survey (VR-36), Short Form 36, Abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and Sleep Health Scale) as clear and very applicable to veterans. Of the two instruments developed and validated among veterans, the 16-item M2C-Q considered most components of health (mental, social and spiritual). Of the three instruments not validated among veterans, only the 26-item WHOQOL-BREF considered all four components of health.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We identified 45 health measurement instruments of which, among those reporting adequate psychometric properties and endorsed by our veteran partners, 2 instruments showed the most promise for measurement of subjective health. The M2C-Q, which requires augmentation to capture physical health (eg, the physical component score of the VR-36), and the WHOQOL-BREF, which requires validation among veterans.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"155-165"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9313949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transferable military medical lessons from the Russo-Ukraine war.","authors":"Timothy J Hodgetts, D N Naumann, D M Bowley","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002435","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002435","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"101-104"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12015017/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9753721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Red cell haemolysis secondary to intraosseous (IO) blood transfusion in adult patients with major trauma: a systematic review.","authors":"Matt Ellington, I Walker, E Barnard","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002378","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002378","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Intraosseous (IO) administration of medications and blood products is accepted practice in major trauma when intravenous access is not immediately available. However, there is a concern that the high infusion pressures required for IO transfusion may increase the risk of red cell haemolysis and its associated complications. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise the existing evidence describing the risks of red cell haemolysis in IO blood transfusion.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We undertook a systematic search of MEDLINE, CINAHL and EMBASE using the search terms: \"intraosseous transfusion\" and \"haemolysis\". Two authors independently screened abstracts, and reviewed full-text articles against the inclusion criteria. Reference lists of included studies were reviewed and a grey literature search undertaken. Studies were assessed for risk of bias. Inclusion criteria were: all human and animal study types that reported novel data on IO-associated red cell haemolysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline was used.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Twenty-three abstracts were identified; n=9 full papers met the inclusion criteria. No further studies were identified from reference lists or grey literature. These papers included: seven large animal translational studies, a prospective and a retrospective human study. The overall risk of bias was high. One animal study with good translatability to adult patients with trauma demonstrated haemolysis. Other animal studies had methodological constraints that limit their human applicability. No haemolysis was observed in low-density flat bones (sternum), whereas haemolysis was reported in long bones (humerus, tibia). IO infusion using a three-way tap was associated with haemolysis. Conversely, pressure bag transfusion was not associated with haemolysis, but this method may result in insufficient flow rates for effective resuscitation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There is a paucity of high-quality evidence surrounding the risks of red cell haemolysis in IO blood transfusion. However, evidence from one study suggests that the likelihood is increased by use of a three-way tap to administer blood transfusion to young adult male patients with trauma. Further research is needed to address this important clinical question.</p><p><strong>Prospero registration number: </strong>CRD42022318902.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"173-178"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9525435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bryndan Lindsey, C Hanley, L Reider, S Snyder, Y Zhou, E Bell, J Shim, J-O Hahn, M Vignos, E Bar-Kochba
{"title":"Accuracy of heart rate measured by military-grade wearable ECG monitor compared with reference and commercial monitors.","authors":"Bryndan Lindsey, C Hanley, L Reider, S Snyder, Y Zhou, E Bell, J Shim, J-O Hahn, M Vignos, E Bar-Kochba","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002541","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002541","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Physiological monitoring of soldiers can indicate combat readiness and performance. Despite demonstrated use of wearable devices for HR monitoring, commercial options lack desired military features. A newly developed OMNI monitor includes desired features such as long-range secure data transmission. This study investigated the accuracy of the OMNI to measure HR via accuracy of R-R interval duration relative to research-grade ECG and commercial products.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>54 healthy individuals (male/female=37/17, age=22.2±3.6 years, height=173.0±9.1 cm, weight=70.1±11.2 kg) completed a submaximal exercise test while wearing a reference ECG (Biopac) and a randomly assigned chest-based monitor (OMNI, Polar H10, Equivital EQ-02, Zephyr Bioharness 3). All participants also wore two wrist-based photoplethysmography (PPG) devices, Garmin fēnix 6 and Empatica E4. Bland-Altman analyses of agreement, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and root-mean-squared error (RMSE) were used to determine accuracy of the OMNI and commercial devices relative to Biopac. Additionally, a linear mixed-effects model evaluated the effects of device and exercise intensity on agreement.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Chest-based devices showed superior agreement with Biopac for measuring R-R interval compared with wrist-based ones in terms of mean bias, CCC and RMSE, with OMNI demonstrating the best scores on all metrics. Linear mixed-effects model showed no significant main or interaction effects for the chest-based devices. However, significant effects were found for Garmin and Empatica devices (p<0.001) as well as the interaction effects between both Garmin and Empatica and exercise intensity (p<0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Chest-based ECG devices are preferred to wrist-based PPG devices due to superior HR accuracy over a range of exercise intensities, with the OMNI device demonstrating equal, if not superior, performance to other commercial ECG monitors. Additionally, wrist-based PPG devices are significantly affected by exercise intensity as they underestimate HR at low intensities and overestimate HR at high intensities.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"144-149"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138488792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Todd Leckie, M J Stacey, D Woods, R Greenhalgh, R Galloway, C Kipps, R Hemingway
{"title":"Military standard operating procedures translated into civilian best practice: delivery of cold water immersion to treat exertional heat stroke at Brighton marathon 2023.","authors":"Todd Leckie, M J Stacey, D Woods, R Greenhalgh, R Galloway, C Kipps, R Hemingway","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002460","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002460","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"182-183"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41216470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prevalence of physical health comorbidities and long-term functional outcomes among community-reintegrated veterans following lower limb amputation in Sri Lanka.","authors":"Ashan Wijekoon, D Gamage Dona, S Jayawardana","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002578","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002578","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Lower limb amputation (LLA) poses significant health challenges, including physical health comorbidities (PHCs) and functional limitations. Military veterans, who typically undergo traumatic LLA at a young age, endure these challenges for an extended period. Understanding the extent of these challenges is vital to designing tailored and feasible postamputation care for them. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of PHCs and long-term functional outcomes among community-reintegrated veterans following LLA in Sri Lanka.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in five districts in Sri Lanka. Prevalence of PHCs and functional outcomes were compared between community-reintegrated veterans with war-related traumatic LLA and a matched able-bodied cohort. Data on PHCs were collected from participants' medical records and through a self-administered questionnaire. Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) and 2 min walk test (2MWT) were used to compare functional outcomes between the groups. Veterans' functional level was identified using the K-level classification.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Veterans were active prosthetic users who had undergone LLA >10 years ago. Sixty-six (77.6%) veterans reported experiencing phantom limb pain. A significantly higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus (34.2%), hypertension (22.4%), knee osteoarthritis (18.8%), knee pain (20%) and back pain (69.4%) was observed among veterans compared with the able-bodied group (p<0.05). Veterans demonstrated significantly lower levels of functional mobility (2MWT: mean (SD): 113.6 (14.8); increased risk of falling (TUG): mean (SD): 10.6 (1.8)) compared with able-bodied individuals (150.8 (11.9) and 7.2 (0.9), respectively, p<0.001). The majority of the veterans belonged to the K3 functional level (71.8%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The higher prevalence of PHCs and impaired functional outcomes underscores the multifaceted health challenges faced by veterans with LLA living in low-resource community settings with limited access to rehabilitation. These findings provide insights into the unique rehabilitation needs of individuals with similar backgrounds, informing the design and implementation of tailored rehabilitation interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"120-125"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12015008/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138292105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adam Brust, J H Cole, J Forte, L Mansfield, S Hughey, J Riesberg, A Lin
{"title":"Medical operations in the 21st century: application of TAK among wartime medical assets.","authors":"Adam Brust, J H Cole, J Forte, L Mansfield, S Hughey, J Riesberg, A Lin","doi":"10.1136/military-2023-002400","DOIUrl":"10.1136/military-2023-002400","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Advances in technology have improved the ability for real-time communication and enhanced awareness of medically related information on the battlefield. A government off-the-shelf platform, Team Awareness Kit (TAK), may enhance the ability for battlefield healthcare delivery, evacuation, telecommunication, and medical command and control. Integration of TAK into existing medical infrastructure provides a global view of resources, patient movement and direct communication, significantly reducing the 'fog of war' as it relates to battlefield injury and evacuation. Rapid integration and adoption are technically feasible with minimal resource investment. This technology can be rapidly scaled for the increasingly interconnected world of healthcare delivery.</p>","PeriodicalId":48485,"journal":{"name":"Bmj Military Health","volume":" ","pages":"97-100"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9746776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}