Assessing Exposures in the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces - A Review of Systems that Collect Data Useful for Exposure Assessment

The ability to assess the exposure of individuals or groups is a critical element in any effective health surveillance system, as it provides the opportunity to identify the causes of ill health, the levels of exposure resulting in ill health and, through controlling exposures, to protect the health...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBMJ military health Vol. 147; no. 3; pp. 301 - 308
Main Authors Capleton, AC, Short, SD, Rushton, L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Regimental Headquarters RAMC 01.10.2001
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
Subjects
Biological and medical sciences
Data Collection
Environmental Exposure - statistics & numerical data
General aspects
Health Surveys
Health systems. Social services
Humans
Medical sciences
Military Medicine
Military Personnel
Noise, Occupational
Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data
Occupational Health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Radiation Injuries
Risk Assessment
United Kingdom
Vibration
United Kingdom
Europe
Human
Health system
Army
Ministry
Surveillance
Force
Political aspect
Occupational exposure
Epidemiology
Defense
Recommendation
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Summary:The ability to assess the exposure of individuals or groups is a critical element in any effective health surveillance system, as it provides the opportunity to identify the causes of ill health, the levels of exposure resulting in ill health and, through controlling exposures, to protect the health of Service personnel. As part of a wider programme to enhance the health surveillance capabilities of the Defence Medical Services, a project was undertaken to assess the collection and retention of data for exposure assessment in the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces. The systems investigated include those for health, safety and environment policy, personnel and pay, medical records, environmental and occupational monitoring and historical records. It was found that the use of many systems for exposure assessment would be hampered by inconsistencies in the data collected, poor accessibility and linkage, and variability in the retention of the data. This paper highlights some of the problems that limit the usefulness of the record systems for exposure assessment and summarizes the principal recommendations made for enhancing the systems to better facilitate health surveillance.
ISSN:0035-8665
2633-3767
2052-0468
2633-3775
DOI:10.1136/jramc-147-03-09