Abstract
Objectives
To assess the risk of lateral ankle sprain (LAS) in male and female tactical athletes
across different military occupations in the US military.
Design
Retrospective cohort.
Methods
The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database was queried for the number of individuals
with ICD-9 diagnosis codes 845.00 (sprain of ankle, unspecified) and 845.02 (calcaneofibular
ligament sprain) on their initial encounter from 2006 to 2015. Relative risk (RR)
and chi-square statistics were calculated assessing sex and occupational category
on LAS risk.
Results
272,970 enlisted males (27.9 per 1000 person-years), 56,732 enlisted females (34.5
per 1000 person-years), 24,534 male officers (12.6 per 1000 person-years), and 6020
female officers (16.4 per 1000 person-years) incurred a LAS. Enlisted females in all
occupational groups were at significantly higher risk for LAS than their male counterparts
(RR 1.09–1.68; p < 0.001), except for Engineers (p = 0.15). Female officers had consistently higher risk for LAS in all occupational groups
(RR 1.10–1.42; p < 0.001) compared with male officers, except Ground/Naval Gunfire (p = 0.23). Contrasted with Infantry, enlisted tactical athletes in the Special Operations
Forces, Mechanized/Armor, Aviation, Maintenance, and Maritime/Naval Specialties were
at lower risk (RR 0.38−0.93; p < 0.001), Artillery, Engineers, and Logistics Specialties were at higher risk (RR 1.04–1.18;
p < 0.001), and Administration, Intelligence, and Communications were no different (p = 0.69). Compared with Ground/Naval Gunfire officers, Aviation officers were at significantly
lower risk (RR, 0.75; p < 0.001), and Engineers, Maintenance, Administration, Operations/Intelligence, and Logistics
officers were at higher risk (RR, 1.08–1.20; p < 0.001).
Conclusions
Sex and military occupation were salient factors associated with LAS risk.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 03, 2021
Accepted:
February 24,
2021
Received in revised form:
December 22,
2020
Received:
August 20,
2020
Footnotes
☆Presented at the 5th International Congress on Soldiers’ Physical Performance, Québec City, Québec, Canada, February 2020 and is archived at doi: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11819709.v2. The preprint of this manuscript is archived on medRxiv at doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.20.20178871.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia.
