Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41276302›Full record

ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2026

Relationships between combat injury, pain, mobility and post-service employment: the ADVANCE study.

Howard Burdett, Susie Schofield, Daniel Mark Dyball, Alexander Bennett, Christopher Boos, Anthony Bull, Nicola T Fear

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Howard BurdettKing's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London, UK howard.burdett@kcl.ac.uk.ORCID 0000-0002-8127-8981
Susie SchofieldImperial College London, London, UK.
Daniel Mark DyballKing's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-0547-8674
Alexander BennettImperial College London, London, UK.
Christopher BoosFaculty of Health & Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK.
Anthony BullCentre for Blast Injury Studies, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Nicola T FearKing's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-5792-2925

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesOver 600 UK Armed Forces personnel and civilians were seriously injured in the conflict in Afghanistan. We examined whether combat injury, and limb loss specifically, reduced the likelihood of employment after leaving the UK Armed Forces and to what extent this was mediated by pain and mobility.

methodsCombat-injured participants who were aeromedically evacuated to a UK hospital while on deployment to Afghanistan and subsequently left the UK Armed Forces (n=406) and a comparison group of uninjured personnel who had left the military (n=107) were drawn from an existing cohort (the ADVANCE study). Current employment was determined by self-report questionnaire, and pain and mobility mediating variables were taken from the EuroQol EQ-5D 5-Level measure.

results21.2% of the injured group were not in paid employment, compared with 14.3% of the uninjured comparison group; this difference was not statistically significant. Unmediated analyses showed that although those with amputation injuries had an increased risk of being unemployed compared with the comparison group, this was not statistically significant. For those who were injured without limb loss, compared with the comparison group, there were indirect effects on employment through both mobility (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.32, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.69) and pain (aRR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.31).

conclusionsIn this severely injured cohort, combat injury does not result in a significantly reduced rate of post-military employment. Any potential relationship between injury and employment for those injured without limb loss compared with the uninjured is due in part to the mediating effects of mobility and pain.

Indexed as

EmploymentMilitary PersonnelMobility LimitationPainAdultAfghan Campaign 2001-FemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedReturn to WorkSurveys and QuestionnairesUnited KingdomYoung AdultMilitary PersonnelVeteransWounds and Injuries

Identifiers

PMID41276302
PMCPMC12911596

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.