Investigation and analysis of the disease spectrum of military divers

Objective To analyze the disease spectrum and spectrum features of military divers, so as to provide solid evidence for the health management profile of divers and realize the goal of early prevention and health promotion, thus enhancing their fighting capacity. Methods The health data of 1864 military divers who had convalescence and health examination in the sanatorium from 2008 to 2016 were collected for the study, and SPSS 21.0 software was used for statistical analysis of the obtained results. Results In the 1 864 divers, 1 594 man times were affected by various diseases, accounting for 85.51%, and the same person who suffered from several diseases accounted a higher percentage. There were 1 145 man times with 2 or more than 2 diseases, accounting for 71.83%. Comparison of different service years revealed that those in the 9-12 service years group with 2 and 3 diseases had the highest percentage of morbidity, accounting for 24.58% and 30.82% respectively, and those in the ≥17 service years group with 4 diseases had the highest percentage of morbidity, accounting for 28.36%. Statistically significance could be noted, when comparisons were made between them(χ2=101.273, P=0.000). In accordance with the examinations by different departments, the diseases could be classified into 12 categories. The total number of diseases in this population was 3 156, of which the top 5 diseases were optical diseases, oral diseases, metabolic diseases, ENT diseases and surgical diseases. The number of cases was 895 (28.36%), 845 (26.77%), 568 (18.00%), 231 (7.32%) and 194 (6.15%) respectively. Furthermore, comparison of different disease categories for those with different service years revealed that there was statistical significance, when comparisons were made between optical, metabolic, ENT, surgical and digestive diseases (χ2=19.874, χ2=73.005, χ2=17.147, χ2=23.210, χ2=18.697, P<0.05). For the above-mentioned diseases, those divers in the 9-12 service years group had the highest morbidity, and the number of patients was respectively 245 (27.37%), 152 (26.76%), 52 (22.51%), 49 (25.26%) and 48 (27.27%). When classified with different service years, the analysis of the top 10 disease spectrum showed that gingivitis and ametropia were prominent disorders, ranking the top two. The rates of such metabolic disease as fatty liver, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperuricemia increased with the increase of service years, and the rates of morbidity also increased with the progress of service years, with the order of disease spectrum being the top 5 in the years from 2014 to 2016. Lumbar disc herniation, allergic rhinitis and hyperbilirubinemia were the top 10 new diseases in the years from 2014 to 2016. Conclusion The health status of military divers was not optimistic, especially for those in the 9-12 service years group. In accordance with the disease spectrum, urgent measures should be taken for better health management of divers, so that their health level could be maintained, the capacity of sustained diving operations could be ensured, thus enabling them to handle those urgent and dangerous tasks at any time, and prolong ing their professional life. Key words: Military divers; Disease spectrum; lnvestigation