Medical Support to Irregular Warfare: A Systematic Literature Review, 2000-2024
Abstract
Introduction: Irregular Warfare (IW) is used by the United States and other nations to shape the environment, deter, or prevent conflict, and prevail in war through asymmetric activities. Irregular Warfare occurs in resource-constrained environments with inadequate medical infrastructure or in those that are contested, denied, or sensitive. These environments pose challenges to providing medical care to U.S., ally, and partner nation forces and civilians. The purpose of this research was to identify what global lessons learned since 9/11 can be applied to current challenges and future direction that enhance medical support to IW.
Materials and methods: A systematic literature review of peer-reviewed and grey literature using 88 databases within PubMed, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest was conducted. Data on the characteristics of irregular warfare medicine from 2000 to the present were extracted and documented. This included the US Department of Defense (DoD) doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P) framework and DoD medical functional areas.
Results: Of the 12,656 sources identified, 7,988 remained after excluding duplicate matches. A total of 1,063 met the inclusion criteria and were primarily written by civilians (51.7%), covering 81 different countries, representing all Geographical Combatant Commands. US Central Command featured most prominently (61.9%) and was therefore heavily biased toward…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Understanding the factors influencing fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) damage in African smallholder maize fields and quantifying its impact on yield. A case study in Eastern Zimbabwe
- Alarming situation of emerging H5 and H7 avian influenza and effective control strategies
- Livestock and food security: vulnerability to population growth and climate change
- Atmosphere–ocean oxygen and productivity dynamics during early animal radiations
- Characterization of the global distribution and diversified plasmid reservoirs of the colistin resistance gene mcr-9
- The global seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pigs: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.