Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database (TAIHOD): Uses and Limitations as a Research Tool for Force Health Protection Research

摘要

The Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database (TAIHOD) is a research tool with great potential for identifying risk factors, documenting adverse health outcomes, and evaluating intervention strategies, among deployed and non-deployed active duty servicemembers. The TAIHOD comprises data from multiple Department of Defense agencies, including records of hospitalizations, outpatient visits, deaths, disabilities, flying duty medical examinations, accident reports, clinical evaluations from Gulf War registrants with the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program (CCEP), and reports of spousal abuse, as well as demographic information, self-reported health behavior information from surveys, and occupational noise exposure data. The TAIHOD thus has great potential for Force Health Protection-related research focusing on the health of servicemembers during armed conflicts and during peacetime activities. Moreover, by virtue of the breadth and depth of the information it contains, it is particularly useful for assessing pre- and post-deployment health for the entire population of Soldiers serving on active duty. This report describes the component databases of the TAIHOD, highlighting strengths and limitations of each of these data sources. This report also provides information in a 'lessons learned' format in the hopes that this will make it particularly useful to other researchers who use some of the same data sources contained in the TAIHOD. We also provide data from our validation and data cleaning activities that not only highlight some of the pitfalls other researchers may wish to avoid when using these data, but also point to some potential areas for future research.