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When they return to the US, many soldiers continue these behaviors or get anxious when they don’t continue the behaviors. So – waiting in traffic or at a stop light can be very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that returned soldiers may run a red light or stop sign.
Erica Stern, PhD, OTR/L, Associate Professor in the Program of Occupational Therapy, Center for Allied Health Programs, has been named an ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education) faculty fellow of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM). In this capacity, Dr. Stern will work with the Office of the Surgeon General’s Proponency Office for Rehabilitation and Reintegration to help develop policy and best-practice program recommendations to improve reintegration of Soldiers returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Dr. Stern’s work focuses on soldiers’ carryover of combat-driving behaviors and driving related anxieties onto American roads. In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers use specific combat driving behaviors to minimize exposure to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other forms of attack. These behaviors are meant to limit their exposure as targets. For example, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army vehicles have the right of way in all circumstances, and commonly drive through intersections and around slowed or stopped traffic, even if such maneuvers require driving in oncoming lanes of traffic or off-road. Similarly, when convoys encounter roadside debris or objects that may hide IEDs, vehicles move into oncoming lanes or off the road to distance themselves from possible danger.
“These driving maneuvers are tightly linked with soldiers’ safety, and they become automatic,” notes Stern. “When they return to the US, many soldiers continue these behaviors or get anxious when they don’t continue the behaviors. So, waiting in traffic or at a stop light can be very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that returned soldiers may run a red light or stop sign.”
In a pilot study comparing local soldiers who had been deployed to some who had not been deployed, Dr. Stern and her occupational therapy graduate students found several significant differences between the two groups’ driving patterns. “We were surprised by the large numbers of returnedsoldiers who displayed carryover driving behaviors in the past month. Over 20% had driven while straddling lanes or had run stop signs, and over 30% had been told that they drove dangerously by family of friends. Even more reported driving related anxieties,” Dr. Stern continued.
Dr. Stern’s work as an ORISE Fellow fits well with a grant that she and Todd Rockwood, Associate Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, recently received as part of the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. That study will expand on the earlier local survey to study the scope and timeline of combat driving and driving related anxieties in a national sample of returned soldiers who have and have not been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and compare those data to the reports of service members who experienced mild brain injury during their deployment.