Journal of Archives in Military Medicine
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Feb 2016

Context: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is increasingly important in the assessment of chronic conditions, especially for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which has no associated mortality, but is prevalent and significantly impacts patient’s lives. Disease-specific instruments such as the irritable bowel syndrome quality of life instrument (IBS-QOL), in addition to generic instruments such as the short form (SF)-36, are useful in measuring health-related quality of life, and have been shown to be reliable in assessing disease severity and as an endpoint to monitor treatment response. We reviewed the impact of IBS on patients’ HRQoL, the factors causing HRQoL impairments, and the utility of HRQoL instruments in the assessment of IBS..
Evidence Acquisition: We performed electronic literature searches in Medline, the Cochrane library, and digestive disease week (DDW) meeting abstracts. Across all databases searched, common keywords included “Irritable bowel syndrome”, “Quality of life” and “Health related quality of life”. For databases that accommodated Boolean searches, terms specifically related to QOL and military were added..
We summarized the data available in the literature to show that HRQoL is poorer in patients with IBS compared to healthy controls, and compared to most serious chronic conditions. There are several factors that contribute to HRQoL impairments in IBS, of which gastrointestinal symptoms, physical co-morbidities, psychosocial factors and demographics all play significant roles..
It is crucial for clinicians to be aware of the importance of measuring HRQoL. Understanding the factors causing impairment of HRQoL is also important for clinicians seeing these patients as it helps to individualise treatment and treat the patient more holistically, to achieve greater patient satisfaction..

Oral and dental care is very important for submarine crews, as they live in confined spaces while they are on their missions. If emergency dental conditions occur during submarine operations, dentistry services are not available..
The objective of the current study was to evaluate the prevalence of oral and maxillofacial diseases among submarine personnel..
In this cross-sectional study, 74 submarine crew and 28 marine personnel participated after signing a written informed consent statement. The data was collected using a questionnaire that included items on the demographic data, medical and dental history, behaviors related to oral and dental health, and the probability of emergency dental conditions on the mission. The questionnaire was filled out for each participant by a dentist after performing clinical and paraclinical assessments. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20..
The DMFT index (decayed, missing, and filled teeth) for the submarine and marine groups were 5.24 ± 4.16 and 8 ± 5.94, respectively. The number of missing teeth and the MDFT index were significantly higher in the marine group (P 0.05). Prevalence of the aphthous stomatitis was significantly higher in the submarine group (P In general, the oral and dental health status of the submarine crew was better than that of the marine group. The prevalence of aphthous stomatitis, however, was significantly higher in the submarine group. One of the etiologies considered for that condition is stress..

Changes in the environment and living conditions are associated with changes in physical and cognitive functions..
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a two-month military service period on soldiers’ general health, social physique anxiety, and body mass index. The sample included all soldiers in Isfahan’s army garrison training period. A 28-item questionnaire on general health, a social physique anxiety questionnaire (Hart et al. 1989) that measured the social physical anxiety and the ratio of weight to the height square calculating body mass index..
The results of the paired t-test showed that there were significant differences in pre-test and post-test scores on the general health aspects of anxiety and social physique anxiety and there were no significant differences in other aspects of soldiers’ general health and body mass index. This suggests that the two-month training period affects only the variables of anxiety (anxiety, insomnia, and social physique anxiety)..
The findings showed that the military training period can significantly affect anxiety, but it cannot affect the health and body mass index..

Alopecia areata (AA) is a common disease in the military population; however, a few studies have calculated the lifetime risk of alopecia areata in first-degree relatives of patients as well as the impact of stress..
The primary aim of this study was to calculate the lifetime risk of alopecia areata in first-degree relatives of index patients. The secondary aim of this study was to assess the role of stressful events in the onset/recurrence of disease..
Patients and One hundred and twenty-one patients with alopecia areata and their first-degree relatives, which included 597 subjects in addition to 119 controls, were studied. We considered a gender and age-matched control for each patient. They were investigated for the occurrence of stressful events within the previous six months before the onset/recurrence of the disease..
More than twenty-six percent of patients had a positive family history, while 6.4 percent of first-degree relatives were affected by alopecia areata. Lifetime risks were estimated at 7.6% for parents, 9.9% for siblings, and 6.4% for children. Eighty-eight patients (73.9%) experienced stressful events within six months prior to the onset or recurrences of alopecia areata, while 32 subjects (26.9%) of the control group reported such events in the last six months (P value = 0.000)..
Calculated lifetime risks can be used in genetic counseling. It appears that stressful events can be considered to be contributing factors in the development of alopecia areata. Also, according to our results, the role of stress in the recurrence of alopecia areata is more prominent than the primary development of the disease..