Disease and Non-Battle Injuries among Navy and Marine Corps Personnel during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm

This study describes types and frequencies of Diseases and Non-Battle Injuries DNBI that occurred in a sample population of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel deployed to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. Data were collected at two U.S. Navy mobile field hospitals set up in northern Saudi Arabia during the seven months of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. A Medical Encounter Data Sheet MEDS was used to capture pertinent medical information during individual patient visits. The MEDS form is a modified version of an instrument used in earlier studies of DNBI during peacetime. Completed MEDS forms were forwarded to the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, where they were coded and the data entered into a computer file for analysis. Frequencies were computed for each of the major illness and injury categories defined in the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision ICD-9. The highest number of visits were for Injuries and Poisonings followed by Diseases of the Respiratory System. These findings are consistent with earlier studies of DNBI among U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel under peacetime conditions. The MEDS form proved useful as a means of documenting medical treatment information from deployed units. Operation Desert Shield Documenting Medical Treatment, Operation Desert Storm, Medical Encounter Data Sheet, Disease and Non-Battle Injuries, Persian Gulf War.