What is the risk associated with being a qualified military parachutist?

Military parachuting has been recognized as a hazardous activity since it w as first introduced in World War II. Other risks associated with military s ervice include actual war-fighting, training with weapons and explosives, o perating with armoured vehicles or deployment to climatic extremes. These o ther hazards should be considered in any assessment of the additional risk associated with military parachuting. The aim of this study was to identify the risk attributable to parachuting amongst US Army enlisted soldiers. Th is study identified a cohort of infantry soldiers who served between 1990-9 4. They were separated by receipt of parachute hazardous duty pay. There wa s a total of 329,794 person-years (PY) available for study of which 18% wer e in the exposed group. The rate of hospitalization was very similar in bot h groups [123.9 per 1,000 PYs for the exposed group, 127 in the non-exposed group: relative risk (RR) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI)= 0.96-1.00) . The exposed group was 1.49 times (CI = 1.42-1.57) more likely to be admit ted as a result of an injury as compared with the non-exposed group. Milita ry parachuting was 20 times (CI = 16.6-24.3) more likely to be the cause of an injury. This study has shown that receipt of hazardous duty pay for mil itary parachuting can be used as a marker in identifying significant additi onal risks to the health of infantry soldiers associated with military para chuting. This was reflected in an increased incidence of admission for acut e injury and musculoskeletal trauma (particularly a trauma pattern associat ed with parachuting) as a result of military parachuting. Other risks, whic h are associated with parachute pay, are admission for the effects of heat, battle injury and helicopter accidents.