The association of health risk behaviors and occupational injury among United States Army basic trainees.

摘要

Knowledge of behavioral risk factors for occupational injury, especially among young workers, is limited. This study investigated the association of health risk behaviors with injuries sustained by young men and women during Army basic training. Self-reported questionnaire data on prior health risk behaviors collected upon entry to training were linked to medical data on injuries occurring during the nine-week training period. Multivariate survival analysis was used to model the association of training-related injury with a combined risk-taking index consisting of five individual health risk behaviors (cigarette use, smokeless tobacco use, alcohol use, weight control practices, and diet/lifestyle choices). Analysis was conducted separately for men and women, and models controlled for demographic, physical fitness, and physiologic characteristics. Among this multi-ethnic sample of 1,156 young men and 746 women (median age: 19), cumulative injury incidence was 4.2 trainees/1,000 trainee-days for men and 9.3 trainees/1,000 trainee-days for women. Males in both the lowest (HR=1.73, 95%CI: 1.47, 2.05) and highest (HR=1.92, 95%CI: 1.57, 2.34) combined risk-taking index categories had greater risk of training-related injury compared to persons within one standard deviation of the mean combined risk index score. Cigarette use was independently associated with training-related injury; males in the medium risk cigarette use index category had 1.8 times the risk of a training-related injury compared to the low categories. Among females, injury risk was more closely associated with individual health risk behaviors related to cigarette use and diet/lifestyle choices. Among males, risk-taking as measured by prior self-reported health risk behaviors was associated with training-related injury while controlling for known risk factors. These data suggest that occupational injury risk, particularly among young males, is influenced by risk taking-tendency, a behavioral risk factor worthy of further study.