Musculoskeletal Injury in Australian Infantry Personnel: A Cross-sectional Study to Understand Prevention Priorities

Musculoskeletal injuries are common in the Australian infantry and significantly burden the workforce. Physical training and field exercises are most associated with injury and represent opportunities for injury risk-mitigation strategies to support the overall deployability of personnel and the combat effectiveness of their battalions. Future research should more formally explore the injury risk factors related to these activities using more robust study designs to collect injury and exposure information more accurately and reliably. One study strength includes using military-specific international injury surveillance guidelines to inform the survey design, to collect the recommended injury information for effective surveillance, and to enable future research comparison. A second study strength was tailoring the survey to promote participatory engagement, providing a high completion rate. A challenge in conducting this research was coordinating participant recruitment and data collection during domestic operations. Such challenges reflect the reality of conducting research in the military.