Monitoring Health Problems in Military Personnel Using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on Health Problems

INTRODUCTION: Military personnel are exposed to diverse, intense, and often unchangeable occupational demands, resulting in a high prevalence and burden of health problems. Traditional health registration methods, like medical records, only capture health problems when they result in limited duty status, often not allowing for timely intervention. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between occupational tasks and the development of health problems at the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNLM) using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire on health problems (OSTRC-H2). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a 12-week prospective observational cohort study at the operational branch of the RNLM. All about 6,500 employees of the RNLM were able to participate. Participants used the Perfyso app to register their health status and occupational tasks weekly. We used logistic mixed model analyses to estimate the effect of the occupational task on the occurrence of a health problem. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-six participants registered to participate and 293 filled in the first week questionnaire with a mean weekly response rate of 51% (95% CI: 40%-61%). Participants reported a total of 224 health problems with a mean weekly prevalence of 23% (for all health problems) and 5% for substantial health problems. Most of the reported health problems were illnesses (43%), followed by physical health problems (35%), and mental health problems (22%). We found that dynamic and operationally demanding tasks, such as Border Policing-Mobile Security Surveillance and Security and Surveillance-Subjects, were associated with a higher risk of health problems compared to less demanding tasks like managing or deskwork. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that dynamic and operationally demanding tasks were associated with a higher risk of health problems compared to less demanding tasks. Our findings indicate that this tool may be further explored to monitoring emerging health problems in military personnel.