Orthopedic Injury Epidemiology in Korea Navy Population

PURPOSE Although military personnels have been frequently having problems with musculoskeletal injuries, no epidemiological evidence exist from the military in Korea. The purpose of this investigation is to describe the musculoskeletal injuries epidemiology in the Department of Orthopedics in Marine Medical Center Korea Navy from 2015 to 2016 years. METHODS Medical chart of hospitalized patients from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016 were reviewed. Musculoskeletal injuries were categorized by using International Classification of Disease 10th Revision. Descriptive statistics were reported. Chi-square test was used to analyze 1) the associations between the case of surgery and types of injuries, location of injuries, cause of injuries and preventable injuries 2) the association between preventable injuries and location and cause of injuries. RESULTS Out of 741 patients, 125 patients were excluded from analysis due to improper injuries therefore 616 patients were analyzed. Acute injuries were 67.1% and chronic injuries were 32.9%. Sports activities were primary cause of injuries (39.8%) and work (27.9%) and physical training (21.1%) was followed. The most frequent anatomical location of injuries was knee (29.7%) and ankle (25.5%). Case of surgery was associated with acute injuries (chi-square=10.4, p=.001) and preventable injuries was associated with lower extremity injuries (chi-square=76.14, p<.05) and sports activities (chi-square=38.32, p<.05). CONCLUSIONS Epidemiology data is the fundamental and essential information to develop injury prevention strategies to decrease injuries. The current investigation revealed that musculoskeletal injuries in knee and ankle joint were categorized as preventable and the injury prevention program may reduce the frequency of musculoskeletal injuries.