The Impact of Lost Leave on the Medical Readiness of US Soldiers: It's Not a European Vacation

Abstract : Soldiers in the U.S. Army work hard. As a result, their 30 days of leave a year and their passes issued by commanders provide them a break from an otherwise relentless pace of military operations. As part of a 2-year longitudinal study of the impact of operations tempo on soldiers stationed in Europe, we are assessing the impact of workload on soldier and unit readiness. The soldiers in this study (N=665) worked an average of 10.9 hours per day, 5.4 days a week, took part in 31 days of field exercises in 6 months, and deployed an average of .2 times per year. The reality of this hectic schedule is that soldiers are not guaranteed that they can take the leave time they have earned - their leave time may be cancelled, accumulated as part of the following year's total or simply lost (if there is no opportunity to take it). In our sample, soldiers reported taking an average of 17.3 days of leave in the past 12 months and losing 1.5 days (SD--5.25). We examined the role of lost leave in predicting physical and psychological health. In a series of moderated multiple regression analyses, we found that the number of leave days lost predicted physical symptoms and that this effect was moderated by the amount of leave taken and by soldier perceptions of task significance, recognition, and leadership at both the officer and non-commissioned officer level. Having leave time lost or cancelled is a U.S. military stressor with implications for longer-term health effects. In addition to minimizing the number of lost and cancelled lea;ve days, military leaders can moderate the impact of lost leave at the local level through emphasizing a soldier's importance in performing significant missions and by providing appropriate leadership at all levels.