Status and influencing factors of rappelling training injuries in an army air assault unit

To explore the occurrence and risk factors of rappelling training injuries in an army air assault unit in order to provide a basis for prevention and control of military training injuries.

A case-control trial was conducted on officers and soldiers from a unit of army air assault. The occurrence and characteristics of rappelling training injuries was investigated through a questionnaire survey. According to the existence of the training injuries or not, the participants were divided into the injured group and control group. The risk factors for rappelling training injuries were analyzed in terms of their general data, physical quality, and conditions before and after training injuries.

Among the 303 valid participants, 115 (37.95%) of them experienced rappelling training injuries and were assigned into the injured group, and the other 188 participants were into the control group. The most injured body parts were the ankle (19.72%), knee (15.49%), and wrist (13.15%) joints in order. Logistic regression analysis showed that duration of military service (95%CI: 1.011-1.209, P=0.028), from one-child family (95%CI: 1.541-4.578, P=0.000), sit-up performance (95%CI: 0.922-0.970, P=0.000) and 3 000 m running performance (95%CI: 1.001-1.010, P=0.029) were independent risk factors for the occurrence of rappelling training injuries.

Army air assault trooper who are from one-child family, have insufficient core muscle strength and aerobic endurance, and a relatively longer duration of service are prone to rappelling training injuries.