Evaluating the Epidemiology of Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury in Infants of U.S. Military Families

Psychological symptom profiles were obtained on 1,601 children of soldiers deployed during Operation Desert Storm (ODS). The profiles were obtained from reports of the parents who stayed at home with the children. Certain symptoms such as sadness were common, but very few parents considered their children's problems serious enough to require counseling. The strongest predictor of children's receiving counseling during ODS was a previous history of being in counseling for emotional problems. Linking abuse reports and medical utilization data to population data, however, will allow unique analyses of "probable" and "possible" cases of inflicted TBI in infants of military families. Conclusions Data from the U.S. military, when appropriately linked and analyzed, provide opportunities to evaluate important risk factors for inflicted TBI in infants. Although epidemiologic challenges may make incidence rates using military data non comparable to rates using other data sources, multivariate analyses can evaluate critical and unique risk factors, as well as the effectiveness of prevention initiatives.