Are Armed Forces infants more at risk than civilian infants?

The aim of the present study is to compare the health status of Armed Force s and civilian infants, accounting fur social class. Tn a prospective cohor t study, demographic data were obtained from mothers of liveborn infants fr om 436 civilian and 162 Armed Forces families. Birth details were taken fro m hospital maternity and child health systems. A six month follow-up was co mpleted by health visitors. Standard social class classification, based on occupation, was used for civilian families and a new equivalent scheme for military personnel. No significant differences were found between civilian and military infants for birthweight. prematurity and failure to thrive. Mi litary infants had significantly more hospital admissions (P = 0.015) and a ccident and emergency attendances (P = 0.002) mainly accounted for by the ' manual' social classes of the Armed Forces. Infant health status of civilia n and military babies did not differ overall. Increased uptake of hospital services by military families can be explained by local circumstances.