Pre-neuromusculoskeletal Injury Risk Factor Evaluation and Post-neuromusculoskeletal Injury Assessment for Return-to-duty/Activity Enhancement

Non-combat related musculoskeletal injuries (MSKI) are the leading cause of morbidity and disability in the United States Military, eroding combat readiness more than any other single disease or health condition. The MSKI problem is challenging to address, in part because it is difficult to comprehensively assess all of the factors that increase MSKI risk and those factors that influence post-MSKI outcomes, value-based care must have the necessary infrastructure to capture and process actionable information, and then implement relevant changes (i.e., learning healthcare system). However, there are no comprehensive Military Health System (MHS) recommendations regarding the collection and use of objective and subjective patient-centric data to inform MSKI risk assessment and mitigation strategies. PREPARE will develop efficient pre- and post-MSKI risk assessments that incorporate objective and subjective measures. The overall study objective is to develop comprehensive clinical assessments that identify the Service member specific factors that contribute to MSKI risks and undesired post-MSKI outcomes.

These objectives will be achieved by the following Specific Aims (SA):

Specific Aim #1: Determine the intra-rater, inter-rater, and inter-day reliability of the study related measurements within a (pilot) cohort of healthy active duty Service members.

Hypothesis SA#1: There will be good-to-excellent intra-rater, inter-rater, and inter-day reliability for study related measurements.

Specific Aim #2: Determine the pre-MSKI physical and psychosocial traits of Service members that differentiate between individuals who go on to sustain an MSKI and those who do not within 1 year of study enrollment.