Military medicine
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Retaining lessons learned from Critical Care Air Transport (CCAT) missions is essential given the recent decrease in operational currency among CCAT personnel. The objective of this case series was to identify and analyze logistical lessons learned from recent critical care transports involving foreign medical treatment facilities with sufficient detail for the CCAT community to incorporate these lessons into future readiness and sustainment training. The provider from each mission submitted a mission narrative with lessons learned. ⋯ Post-mission lessons learned included the need for written communication to disseminate information to the CCAT community. This case series described logistical challenges that present during transport missions involving foreign hospitals. This published series will enable dissemination to the en route care community for possible incorporation into future training.
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The purpose of this scoping review was to systematically evaluate literature addressing menstrual suppression in the military population and to identify gaps in the literature. ⋯ Six gaps were identified: (1) readiness, (2) single branch of service, (3) options for suppression, (4) hesitance to suppress, (5) provider practices, and (6) stagnant research. Recommendations for future research, practice, and military health policy are provided. Expanding research on menstrual suppression in U.S. military service members will enhance the health of military service members, provider practices, and military health policy to promote military readiness.
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Pressure to meet U.S. military weight requirements during service may predispose some service members to develop psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders or unhealthy eating behaviors, which may persist after military discharge. Specifically, research examining U.S. military veterans has found that in weight management programs, veterans with binge-eating behaviors have shown poor treatment outcomes. Overall, previous research suggests that veterans experience considerable and persistent disordered eating problems, and in addition may experience a higher prevalence of disordered eating in comparison to the general U.S. population. Research on Post-9/11 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans is needed as this group frequently presents with high rates of medical and psychiatric disorders. The current study used clinician-administered structured interviews to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and demographic variables in a sample of Post-9/11 OEF/OIF/OND veterans with binge-eating or overeating behavior or neither. ⋯ Further research is needed to inform the development of effective treatments for disordered eating problems, as evidenced by an anticipated increase of veterans entering the VA healthcare system and the high rate of binge eating observed in our study and prior research in Post-9/11 veterans. Moreover, our study findings suggest the relevance of screening veterans for compulsive buying. This study was limited by its relatively small sample which only examined disordered eating behaviors. Future studies could simultaneously explore binge-eating behaviors and binge-eating disorder diagnoses in larger samples. Study strengths include a diverse sample of Post-9/11 veterans with sizable female representation.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common injuries resulting from U.S. Military engagements since 2001. Long-term consequences in terms of healthcare utilization are unknown. We sought to evaluate healthcare expenditures among U.S. military service members with TBI, as compared to a matched cohort of uninjured individuals. ⋯ This investigation represents the first continuous observation of healthcare utilization among individuals with combat-related TBI. Our findings speak to continued consumption of health care well beyond the immediate postinjury period, resulting in total expenditures approximately six to seven times higher than those of service members hospitalized for noncombat-related reasons.