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Barry D. Jordan, MD
Hospital for Special Surgery Cornell Medical Center New York, NY

JAMA. 1989;262(15):2089.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In the March 10 issue of JAMA, Enzenauer et al¹ report boxing-related injuries in the US Army that were serious enough to require hospitalization. In view of the medical, political, and social implications of their study, there are significant methodological issues that need to be addressed. The delineation of these methodological limitations will ensure the proper interpretation of their data and will prevent biased and incorrect extrapolation.

Using records of hospitalizations, the authors reported that on average there were 67 hospitalizations annually, with the injured spending an average of 5.1 days in bed and 8.9 days disabled, ie, unfit for duty. To assess accurately the magnitude of such a finding, one needs to know several factors. First, what percentage of average annual hospitalizations comprised 67 hospitalizations (ie, what was the average annual number of hospitalizations for all military personnel)? In fact, an average of 67 hospitalizations . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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