Citation

Hoglund MW, Schwartz RM. Mil. Med. 2014; 179(1): 19-25.

Affiliation

Department of Population Health, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, 175 Community Drive, 2nd Floor, Great Neck, NY 11021.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

10.7205/MILMED-D-13-00235

PMID

24402980

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the mental health of deployed and nondeployed veterans compared with civilians, exploring gender differences.

METHODS: We sampled 41,903 respondents from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Respondents self-reported how many of the previous 30 days mental health was not good; 14 days or more indicated adverse mental health.

RESULTS: Women exhibited greater prevalence of adverse mental health than men among civilians (odds ratio [OR] = 1.783 (1.653, 1.924), p < 0.001), deployed veterans [OR = 1.879 (1.019, 3.467), p = 0.043], and nondeployed veterans [OR = 2.621 (1.796, 3.825), p < 0.001]. Compared with civilian status, deployed status was associated with adverse mental health for men [OR = 1.361 (1.055, 1.755), p = 0.018] and possibly women [OR = 1.521 (0.930, 2.487), p = 0.095]. Compared with civilian status, nondeployed status was associated with adverse mental health for women [OR = 1.525 (1.152, 2.018), p = 0.003], but not for men [OR = 1.169 (0.943, 1.448), p = 0.155]. We controlled for age, general health, employment status, marital status, education, race/ethnicity, and state of residence.

CONCLUSIONS: Adverse mental health affects male and female combat veterans, as well as women in noncombat military occupations.

Language: en