Medical Attrition of Battlefield Airmen Trainees

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA530133&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
Medical Attrition of Battlefield Airmen Trainees

Brett R. Nishikawa, Maj, USAF, MC, FS
Paul A. Sjoberg, Col, USAF, BSC
Gen M. Maupin, MPH

The Air Education and Training Command (AETC), tasked to identify methods to provide preventive medicine oversight and reduce injury risk related to physical training of Battlefield Airmen trainees, requested the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine/Epidemiology Consult Service to identify types of injuries and illnesses that occurred in each course by week of training and location of training, to identify the injuries/illnesses to determine cost of treatment, to identify the training cost linked to injuries/illnesses (e.g., lost training days), and to provide recommendations for preventive medicine countermeasures. We queried the Technical Training Production Analysis (TTPA) section of the AETC Decision Support System (ADSS) for all training-related events from 1 January 2004 to 20 April 2010 and obtained medical encounter and cost data from the Military Health System Mart for all inpatient and outpatient military treatment facility care and all inpatient care rendered in a civilian hospital. There were 38 unique course identifiers in ADSS for Battlefield Airmen representing 7,953 different individuals. The attrition rate since 2004 for all courses combined was 51%. Medical-related training events accounted for 15% of all attrition. The highest rates were found for Special Operaton Weathermen Slection [sic], Tactical Air Command and Control Apprentice, Pararescue Indoctrination, Tactical Air Control Party Apprentice, Pararescue Indoctrination Course (Enlisted), and Combat Control Apprentice. For most courses, the most frequent types of medical encounters were for either musculoskeletal diagnoses or respiratory illnesses. We recommend the following: expand the current ADSS/TTPA surveillance to include all training sites, including non-Air Force installations; allow for better capture of medical events occurring during training; enable specific medical oversight of Battlefield Airmen pipeline training; and provide more detailed evaluation of events and attrition for the courses that carry a disproportionately high burden of cost mentioned above.