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No recent studies on Navy personnel have examined the relationship between aerobic activity and adverse health conditions or medical care visits. This study examined these relationships to determine if aerobic activity was inversely related to self- reported health conditions and medical visits. Contingency tables were computed for amount of self-reported aerobic activity and prevalence rate of adverse health conditions, number of adverse health conditions, number of medical visits, and gender. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were performed. Age, educational level, marital status, and gender were controlled for in some tests. Women exercised more frequently than men, and men engaged in more work-related aerobic activity days. Women also reported more health conditions, (P <.001), and more medical visits, (P <.001). Exercise was not related to number of reported health conditions overall, (P = 0.12), but frequent exercisers had a lower prevalence rate of specific adverse health conditions than infrequent exercisers. Those with frequent work-related aerobic activity had more overall health conditions than more sedentary workers, P < .001, and reported more specific adverse conditions. In contrast to the favorable association of exercise with reported health conditions, women who reported exercising frequently had more medical visits. Moderate exercise is beneficial, but frequent work-related aerobic activity might have adverse health effects. According to self-reports, Navy men and women exercise more than their civilian counterparts, but some are still not meeting the minimum amounts recommended by the Navy.

This historical prospective study determined incidence rates, based on first hospitalizations, of lymphoid, myeloid, and all leukemias among military men serving on active duty between 1 January 1989 and 31 December 1999. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated to determine if incidence of leukemia in military men differed from incidence rates In the 9 area U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) civilian population. Military occupations were grouped into 35 categories according to likelihood of similar exposures, and age-specific person-years were calculated for each occupational group.

The Career History Archival Medical and Personnel System (CHAMPS) is a computerized medical and personnel database that provides information on cancer, chronic diseases, occupational and preventive medicine, epidemiological research, and medical management in the Navy. The database was created by researchers at the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) for Navy enlisted personnel, and currently is being expanded to include all military personnel. CHAMPS organizes data entries, called events, in chronological order by type and date of event and tracks all active-duty service members from date of entry to date of separation. Each event record contains a set of variables that indicates the type and date of the event and the members status at the time of the event. Event records include medical and personnel data. The Epidemiological Interactive System (EPISYS) provides a desktop interface for rapid automated analysis of the epidemiological data contained in CHAMPS.

Incidence rates of asthma in young adults appear to have been rising in the general population. Time trends and demographic risk factors are reported here for asthma in a well defined population at risk of U.S. Navy young to middle-aged adults. To measure time trends and demographic risk factors for asthma.

The objective of this effort was to calculate the incidence (first hospitalization) rate of acute lymphoid leukemia during the period from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2000, in dependent children 0-24 years old of Navy Servicemembers, using existing electronic data resources. Another objective was to provide a comparison with SEER incidence rates for the general population of the same ages.

Although human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is progressive, the rate of decline in CD4+ lymphocyte counts varies. The role of the immune system components in limiting HIV infection has yet to be defined, but a previous report in the U.S. Navy HIV Seropositive Cohort reported that strong reactivity in the anti-p55 (core precursor), p24 (core) and p53 (reverse trascriptase) Western blot bands was associated with higher CD4+ lymphoycte counts at the first clinical evaluation for HIV. The previous report examined the cross-sectional association between Western blot banding patterns and initial CD+4 lymphocyte counts. This report examines the association between these banding patterns in individuals who progressed rapidly as compared with patterns of patients who did not, based on their trends in repeated CD+4 lymphocyte counts as a marker of progression. Rapid and slower progressors were identified from a cohort of 3414 Navy and Marine Corp personnel who had a first positive HIV Western blot during 1986-1991. For purposes of this study, rapid progressors were defined as individuals whose CD+4 lymphocyte counts declined to < 500 cells/cubic mm within 1 year of seroconversion., Published in Annals of Epidemiology, v6, n4, p341-347, Jul 1996.