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Abstract
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Study Design Retrospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVEs Report the incidence rate of ankle sprains in active duty soldiers and examine if soldiers who sustain ankle sprain (AS) injuries are more likely to leave the Army than those who do not sustain an AS. Background Ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries in physically active people. It has been identified as the most common foot or ankle injury in active duty Army personnel, with a rate of 103 sprains per 1,000 soldiers per year.
METHODS Data was analyzed on the entire active duty U.S. Army population from 2000-2006 (n=1,014,042). A semi-parametric Cox-proportional hazard model was built.
RESULTS The overall incident rate for ankle sprains was 45.14 per 1,000 person-years. After controlling for length-of-service prior to the study period, soldiers who sustained a single ankle sprain were 27% less likely (RR = 0.73, 95% CI [0.73, 0.75]) to leave the service than soldiers who had no documented history of an ankle sprain. However, this trend toward increased service time no longer held true for those who sustained a recurrent sprain (RR = 1.07, 95% CI [0.99, 1.15]).
CONCLUSION It appears that individuals who sustain an incident ankle sprain have longer time in service in the Army than those who do not sustain this injury. However, this trend toward longer service time no longer held true for soldiers who sustained a recurrent sprain. This could be an indication that preventing recurrent injury could factor into longer periods of military service. Level of Evidence Prognosis, level 2b. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, Epub 21 Apr 2015. doi:10.2519/jospt.2015.5733.
Language: en |