Objectives : The aims of this study was to analyze the determinants and impact of the service-related disability and the disability compensation and to utilize as a basic material for minimizing medically discharged soldiers.
Methods : The study clas...
Objectives : The aims of this study was to analyze the determinants and impact of the service-related disability and the disability compensation and to utilize as a basic material for minimizing medically discharged soldiers.
Methods : The study classified the factors by using the 10 year(2007∼2016) audit data(n=14,848) of the ROK Army headquarters, the service-related disability audit committee, which includes rank, gender, branches, service period, military hospitals, the disease type. These factors were analyzed by the 10 year trend frequency analysis and the 5 year chi-square test to find the determinants of disability compensation and a univariable and multivariable logistic regression were performed.
Results : The service-related disability cases are increasing continually showing a significant increase of the cases, especially in 2013(n=405), comparing with 2012. For 10 years, the service-related disability cases increased by 11.3% and the disability compensation cases grew 1.2%. In the 5 year chi-square test, the soldiers grew 14.8% and the mild diseases increased by 19.6%. The very serious and severe diseases decreased by 9.3% and 10.1% respectively.
The major determinants of the service-related disability were rank, service period, disease type and the disability compensation were determined by rank, military hospital, disease type, medically discharged grade and service-related disability. Most of officers and noncom missioned officers considered they had more cases of the service-related disability than soldiers but complained they had fewer cases of the disability compensation cases than soldiers because they hope to be in the active services.
Conclusions : The results of this study suggest that the determinants of the medically discharged soldiers will be analyzed in depth and manifoldly as it is the first study on the determinants of the service-related disability and the disability compensation cases. It is also expected that the compensation system for the medically discharged soldiers will be improved further and more efficiently by utilizing it as a base material for military health care and the work of the National Veterans Affairs.