Bmj Military Health最新文献

Introduction: UK veterans are at increased risk of mental health and alcohol use disorders (AUDs), experiencing specific challenges such as combat exposure and re-integration which may contribute to treatment barriers. Experiences of shame and AUDs, which may precede or become exacerbated during military service, may be mitigated by self-compassion (SC). This study sought to understand how UK veterans make sense of their SC experiences within the context of their relationships with alcohol and recovery.

Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to interpret the SC experiences of five ex-military veterans (one female). Semistructured face-to-face interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, with a double hermeneutic approach used to interpret meaningful issues which influenced participants' self-perceptions in relation to their alcohol use and wider social world.

Results: Two key themes were identified. 'Searching for Safety', which illustrated veterans' SC sense-making within the context of their evolving lifeworld and alcohol use, and 'Healing with Honour' which reflected the significance of purpose and identity within experiences of recovery and SC. Findings were interpreted through the lens of the six bipolar elements of SC, which identified SC as salient within veterans' experiences of AUD and recovery. Although experiences of SC were sometimes perceived as challenging or incongruent to military identity, this was influenced by positive reframing and meaning-making, supported by compassionate narratives and informed trusted relationships.

Conclusions: Veterans' AUD recovery and support-seeking may be impacted by the experience of SC and enhanced by the early implementation of acceptable and feasible interventions which draw on veterans' unique military identities and experience. This may include compassion-focussed interventions which reframe SC as fierce SC, peer support models and educational strategies which support healthcare professionals to understand and identify veterans' military experiences.

Tranexamic acid (TXA) is a life-saving drug that reduces the risk of death from haemorrhage. Intervention is time critical with benefit decreasing with delayed administration. The current Joint Service Publication Patient Group Directive (PGD) for giving TXA during the tactical field care phase of the operational patient care pathway specifies it is given over 10 min via intravenous infusion based on TXA's Summary of Product Characteristics. This paper aims to explore the risks of administering TXA as a bolus rather than a 10-minute infusion. There is little evidence to support the risk of quoted adverse events from bolus administration of TXA, good-quality evidence for the mortality benefit of early administration and some evidence that bolus dosing is safe. The Defence Medical Service should consider a default PGD of rapid TXA administration to maximise mortality benefit.

Introduction: Moral injury concerns transgressive harms and the outcomes that such experiences may cause. A gap in the literature surrounding moral injury, and an outcome that may be important to include in the mounting evidence toward the need for the formal clinical acknowledgement of moral injury, has to do with the relationship between moral injury and quality of life. No studies have examined this relationship in US military veterans-a population that is disproportionately exposed to potentially morally injurious events.

Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted yielding 1495 military veterans. Participants were asked questions about moral injury and quality of life, among other things. Multivariable linear regression was used to characterise the adjusted relationship between moral injury and quality of life.

Results: Moral injury (mean=40.1 out of 98) and quality-of-life (mean=69.5 out of 100) scores were calculated for the sample. Moral injury was inversely associated with quality of life in an adjusted model, indicating that worsening moral injury was associated with decreased quality of life (adjusted unstandardised beta coefficient (b)=-0.3, p<0.001). Results showed that age moderated said relationship, such that ageing veterans experienced an increasingly worse quality of life with increasingly severe moral injury (b=-0.1, p=0.003).

Conclusions: Results of the study showed that moral injury was inversely associated with quality of life and that this relationship rapidly worsens with age. More work is needed to more precisely understand this relationship and to determine the best strategies for intervention.

Introduction: Armed conflict is a growing global cause of death, posing a significant threat to the resilience of global health systems. However, the burden of disease resulting from the Yemeni Civil War remains poorly understood. Approximately half of healthcare facilities in Yemen are non-operational, and around 15% of the population has been displaced. Consequently, neighbouring countries' trauma systems have been providing care to the injured. The objective of this study was to investigate the epidemiology and management of Yemeni civilian victims injured during the war who were subsequently extracted and treated at the study centre in Oman.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including all Yemeni civilians treated for traumatic injuries at the study centre from January 2015 to June 2017. We extracted data on age, sex, date of attendance, mechanism of injury, injuries sustained and treatment.

Results: A total of 254 injured patients were identified. Their median age was 25 (range 3-65) years and 244 (96.1%) were male. Explosions (160 patients, 63.0%) were the most common mechanism of injury, and fractures (n=232 fractures, 42.3% of all injuries; in 149 patients, 58.7% of all patients) the most common injury. Eighty-four of the 150 patients (56%) who received operative management at the study centre were receiving a second procedure after an index procedure outside of Oman.One hundred and twenty-eight (50.4%) patients experienced permanent loss of function in at least one body part and/or limb loss.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the downstream needs of Yemeni civilians who were evacuated to the study centre, revealing a considerable burden of morbidity associated with this population. The findings emphasise key areas that receiving hospitals should prioritise in resource allocation when managing conflict-wounded evacuees. Additionally, the study underscores the need for holistic rehabilitation for civilian casualties displaced by conflict.

Introduction: Older veterans with multimorbidity experience physical, mental and social factors which may negatively impact health and healthcare access. Physical function, behaviour change skills and loneliness may not be addressed during traditional physical rehabilitation. Thus, a multicomponent telerehabilitation programme could address these unmet needs. This programme evaluation assessed the safety, feasibility and change in patient outcomes for a multicomponent telerehabilitation programme.

Methods: Individuals were eligible if they were a veteran/spouse, age ≥50 years and had ≥3 comorbidities. The telerehabilitation programme included four core components: (1) High-intensity rehabilitation, (2) Coaching interventions, (3) Social support and (4) Technology. Physical therapists delivered the 12-week programme and collected patient outcomes at baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks. Programme evaluation measures included safety events (occurrence and type), feasibility (adherence) and patient outcomes (physical function). Safety and feasibility outcomes were analysed using descriptive statistics. The mean pre-post programme difference and 95% CI for patient outcomes were generated using paired t-tests.

Results: Twenty-one participants enrolled in the telerehabilitation programme; most were male (81%), white (72%) and non-Hispanic (76%), with an average of 5.7 (3.0) comorbidities. Prevalence of insession safety events was 3.2% (0.03 events/session). Fifteen (71.4%) participants adhered to the programme (attended ≥80% of sessions). Mean (95% CI) improvements for physical function are as follows: 4.7 (2.4 to 7.0) repetitions for 30 s sit to stand, 6.0 (4.0 to 9.0) and 5.0 (2.0 to 9.0) repetitions for right arm curl and left arm curl, respectively, and 31.8 (15.9 to 47.7) repetitions for the 2 min step test.

Conclusion: The telerehabilitation programme was safe, feasible and demonstrated preprogramme to postprogramme improvements in physical function measures while addressing unmet needs in a vulnerable population. These results support a randomised clinical trial while informing programme and process adaptations.

Spinal cord stimulators (SCS) and peripheral nerve stimulators (PNS) are increasingly used in the treatment of chronic pain, allowing more patients to resume working and return to activities. Military service members face environmental and occupational hazards that expose them to mechanical and electromagnetic forces, both clinical and industrial, that could potentially alter their function. While there are reports of individual hazards, the risk appears to be nominal based on the large number of devices in use and the limited reported complications with these devices. Since a variety of hazards encountered by military patients have the potential to alter SCS and PNS devices, a brief discussion of each patient's specific exposures and related hazards should occur prior to placement. Overall, these devices have demonstrated safety in hazardous areas and few military patients have contraindications for placement based on these factors alone.