Impacts Race and Gender on Exertion Heatlines Among U.S. Army Soldiers : 1980-1998

摘要

Previous studies have suggested that blacks and men may have greater risks of exertional heat illnesses than whites and women. We report on a pilot, retrospective, case-only study of 2,780 military heat illnesses. ICD-9-CM codes from the Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database hospital records were used to identify all cases of heatstroke and heat exhaustion occurring among active-duty U.S. Army soldiers between 1980 and 1998. Cases were stratified by the maximum daily temperature for the incidence date of the case; cases occurring on days when the temperature exceeded the cautionary temperature of 80 degrees F were considered heat induced and cases occurring on days cooler than that threshold were considered exertional. We found a significantly higher risk of cool temperature heat illnesses among blacks in comparison to whites after adjusting for age and gender OR=1.31, 95%CI (1.04-1.66). In contrast, males did not have a significantly higher risk estimate for cool temperature heat illnesses compared to females OR= 0.91, 95%CI (0.69-1.20). Without a disease- free control group for comparison, our results may not accurately describe natural etiologic associations. Interpretations of these results must be made only with the assumption that the exposure of interest is unrelated to our pseudo-control group.