Evaluation of Training Methods Required for Military Women's Accurate Use of a Self-Diagnosis and Self-Treatment Kit for Vaginal and Urinary Symptoms

Most military women are reluctant to attend sick call for urinary and vaginal symptoms during deployment; therefore, alternative self-care options are needed. We evaluated the type and intensity of training required for women to make accurate self-diagnosis and self-treatment decisions with the Women in the Military Self-Diagnosis (WMSD) Kit. The Kit contains commercially available diagnostic devices and the investigator-developed WMSD Decision-Making Guide. A randomized, two-factor, controlled trial design was used to compare accuracy rates among six experimental training conditions, ranging from simplest (videotape) to intensive (videotape + psychomotor skill training + cognitive rehearsal training). Standardized noninfectious specimens were used to measure diagnostic accuracy. The volunteer participants included Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine women (N = 265) aged 18 to 58 years. There were no differences in accuracy rates among the six levels of training intensity, thus predeployment training for accurate use of the Kit requires only a 23-minute videotape. Overall diagnostic accuracy was 80.8% and self-treatment accuracy was 79.9%, which exceed our criterion of ≥75%. Self-treatment commission error rate was 7.6% and omission error rate was 12.5%, which meet or exceed criteria of ≤10% and ≤15%. Briefly, predeployment training with the WMSD Kit shows great promise for improving military women's health during deployment.