Mental disorders in officers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus (2003–2020)

The intention is to present medical and statistical indicators and dynamics of mental morbidity among officers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in 2003–2020. We studied reports on the health status of the personnel and the activities of the medical service according to 3 / MED Form of military units, in which about 80 % of the total number of officers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus served in 2003–2020. We correlated the officers' mental morbidity with groups (blocks) of mental disorders and behavioral disorders presented in Chapter 5 of the International Classification of Diseases and Behavioral Disorders, the 10th revision (ICD-10). We calculated the generally accepted medical and statistical indicators of the mental morbidity per 10 thousand officers. The results were checked for the normal distribution. Arithmetic means and errors of the mean values (M - m) are presented. Indicators was studied over time using the analysis of time series and the calculation of the second order polynomial trends. Average annual level of general morbidity of officers with mental disorders in 2003–2020 amounted to (58.95 - 5.44) per 10 thousand officers, the share of mental disorders in the structure of the overall morbidity for all ICD-10 chapters was 0.43 %; primary morbidity (24.66 - 2.36) and 0.35 %, respectively; hospital admissions (13.89 - 1.50) and 0.1%, respectively; work days lost (315.9 - 47.1) and 0.7 %, respectively; dismissal (2.33 - 0.38) and 4.7 %, respectively. Polynomial trends in the levels of the above generalized types of morbidity showed a decrease with high coefficients of determination. Shares of mental disorders also decrease in morbidity structures for all ICD-10 chapters. As expected, in the structure of the military-epidemiological significance of diseases for officers, neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (61.1 %; ICD-10 Chapter 5) ranked 1^st; unspecified mental disorders (8.4 %; Chapter 11) ranked 2^nd; personality and behavioral disorders in adulthood (6.6 %; Chapter 7) ranked 3^rd; schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders (5.6 %; Chapter 3) ranked 4^th; mood (affective) disorders (4.5 %; Chapter 4) ranked 5^th. In total, these groups accounted for 91.2 % of the morbidity structure. Focusing on the prevention, early detection and treatment of mental disorders will improve officers' mental health and occupational performance.

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