Psychosocial Risk Factors for Upper Respiratory Infections: Assessment of Upper Respiratory Illness during Basic Training

摘要

Symptom reports have been useful for epidemiological surveillance of upper respiratory illness (URI) in civilian populations, but available measures may be ill-suited to military populations performing hard physical work under psychologically stressful conditions. Thirty-nine potential URI symptoms were evaluated in four samples of Navy recruits to develop a URI symptom report measure suitable for such circumstances. Sore throat, productive cough, stuffed-up nose, dry cough, sinus pain, sneezing, fever, and hoarseness were retained based on their relationships to reported health status and correlations between symptoms. Scores on the composite of these 8 symptoms correlated with reports of concurrent musculoskeletal problems and allergy, so adjustments for concurrent illnesses were incorporated. The resulting measure is suitable for epidemiological surveillance of URIs in military personnel, provided proper allowance is made for the influence of general symptom reporting tendencies. (SDW)