Topic: Physical Employment Standards (PES) Grading Trends at
Medical Classification Centre: A Ten-Year Review
Speaker:
CPT (DR) Chua Yu Kim Dennis, LTC (DR) Chiam Tut Fu
Medical Classification Centre, CMPB
Context: With the shortening of full time national service which
resulted in a shorter training time for full-time national
servicemen (NSFs), there is a need to review the PES grading
profile of our pre-enlistees to ensure adequate NSFs are graded PES
A and B to fulfil our nation defence needs.
Aim: We aim to describe the trend of PES grading over the last 10
years and to understand the medical conditions leading to
non-combat fitness.
Study Design: From PACES returns, we generated the number and
percentage of pre-enlistees in each PES grading from Jan 1995 to
Dec 2004. Similarly, we generated the breakdown of the top 20
conditions for non-combat fitness and for PES F.
Results: In 2004, there was a total of 24081 out of 27584, or 87.3%
graded PES A and B. This proportion has remained fairly constant
over the last 10 years. The top 4 medical conditions graded PES C
and below for the past decade were High Myopia, Torn Anterior
Cruciate Ligament (ACL), Asthma, and Mitral Valve Disorder. Torn
ACL has been the most common cause for 4 years running; this can be
attributed to injuries during competitive sports. Asthma has a
prevalence of 4.9% in the general population. There was a sharp
increase in incidence of Borderline IQ resulting in PES C grading
and below due to a new comprehensive methodology in grading. A
total of 507 (1.8%) pre-enlistees were given PES F in 2004, similar
to the proportion in 2003. Mental retardation accounted for 73% of
these PES F cases in 2004 compared to 65% in 2003.
Conclusion: The PES grading trends has remained fairly constant
over the last decade. However, there are minor variations in some
of the medical conditions graded PES C and below which warrant
close monitoring
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