Descriptive epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries during marine corps recruit training in gender-integrated and male-only training units/ Mita Lovalekar, Karen A. Keenan, Elizabeth Steele, [et. al.]

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) occur frequently in military personnel. U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) recruits participate in an intense 13-week training program designed to transform civilians into basically trained Marines, during which they are susceptible to MSIs. Previous injury epidemiology research with USMC recruits was conducted in a non-gender-integrated training. Data for the current study were derived from a larger study, the USMC Gender-Integrated Recruit Training study, that was initiated to provide data-driven recommendations for gender integration during USMC recruit training. The purpose of the current analysis was to describe the unique profile of MSIs during USMC recruit training and compare MSIs between female and male recruits in gender-integrated training.

MUSCULOSKELETAL INJURIES, MARINE CORPS, EPIDEMIOLOGY RESEARCH, RECRUIT TRAINING, NEWARTICLS