Military medicine
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The CoronaVirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remains a formidable threat to populations around the world. The U.S. Military, in particular, represents a unique and distinguishable subset of the population, primarily due to the age and gender of active duty personnel. Current investigations have focused on health outcome forecasts for civilian populations, making them of limited value for military planning. ⋯ Our results confirm that the burden placed on military health centers will be substantially lower than that for equivalent-sized civilian populations. More practically, the tool we have developed to investigate this (https://q.predsci.com/covid19/) can be used by military health planners to estimate the resources needed in particular locations based on current estimates of the transmission profiles of COVID-19 within the surrounding civilian population in which the military installation is embedded. As this tool continues to be developed, it can be used to assess the likely impact of different intervention strategies, as well as vaccine policies; both for the current pandemic as well as future ones.
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Global Health Engagements can be more effective if better evaluation is done and if both line and diplomatic leaders are better educated by deploying medical personnel. To achieve better outcomes, these tasks should be a high priority for global health engagements. Integrity demands it.
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The cadets in the U.S. Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) consist of students from varied backgrounds. As part of collegiate ROTC programs, cadets must pass fitness tests and adhere to body composition standards in addition to completing their education. The previous fitness test of record was the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), but it was recently changed to the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) to better test soldiers for combat capabilities. As part of the standardized scoring, the ACFT is no longer separated by sex or age as in the APFT, but rather by job duty. The purpose of this study was to characterize the modern ROTC cadet based on body composition measures and APFT and ACFT scores and then determine how those factors are related. ⋯ It is clear from our data that structured training programs and nutrition guidance are needed with an emphasis on changing body composition to increase lean mass and strength to increase the performance of ROTC cadets on the ACFT.
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Observational Study
Pattern of Cumulative Treatment Hours on Pain Impact and PROMIS Outcomes.
Participation in interdisciplinary treatments is associated with improvement in pain intensity, physical function, and additional pain-related outcome domains. However, the effect of cumulative treatment hours on outcomes remains unknown among military patients. The present analysis examined the relationship between cumulative interdisciplinary treatment hours and pain management outcomes at a single interdisciplinary pain management center (IPMC). ⋯ A higher number of cumulative treatment hours was associated with improvement of pain impact, fatigue, and depression among military personnel receiving interdisciplinary pain treatment. At least 30 hours of sustained interdisciplinary treatment appears to be the threshold for improvement in pain impact and related outcomes.
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Sexsomnia is a type of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnia in which sexual behaviors arise during sleep; these behaviors are varied and can include masturbation, orgasms with or without self-stimulation, sexual vocalizations and talking, and sexual fondling and/or intercourse with the bed partner. The military creates a challenging environment, with sleep deprivation, shift work, and increased psychosocial stress that may predispose service members to an increased risk for all NREM parasomnias, including sexsomnia. ⋯ We compare and contrast these cases with the available literature to highlight their similarities and differences in addition to commenting on the relevance of these cases in forensic investigations. As none of these cases were involved in legal issues, they could provide useful information about this rare condition in individuals who are less likely to be affected by the biases that are inherent to litigation.