Cold damage among soldiers in cold area of northeast China:a cross-sectional survey

Objective To examine cold damage among soldiers in extremely cold areas of northeast China for the improvement of cold damage prevention and health care in the soldiers.Methods A field study and questionnaire survey were conducted among 536 soldiers recruited by cluster sampling from three cold regions in northeast China in January 2013.Results The prevalence rate of cold injury was 40.7%(218/536) and there was a significant difference in the prevalence rate between the soldiers in very cold areas(50.6%) and cold areas(25.9%)(P<0.05).Significant differences in the prevalence of cold injury were observed among the soldiers with various duration of service,with the prevalence rates of 33.3%,38.9% and 48.9% for the soldiers with service duration of 1,2,and 3 years(χ²=8.749,P<0.05);there were also differences in the prevalence rate among the soldiers with different footbath behaviors,with the prevalence rates of 43.4%,39.1%,and 60.5% among the soldiers having footbath in cold,warm,and hot water(P<0.05).Of the soldiers,41.7% contributed the inducing factors of cold injury to insufficient protective measures,23.6% to ineffective protective equipments,30.9% to both the protective measures and equipments,with a significant difference(χ²=11.572,P<0.05).Conclusion Cold damage is prevalent among garrison soldiers in cold regions of northeast China and education on cold injury prevention should be promoted among the soldiers to decrease the impact of cold injury.