@article{ref1,
title="Research letter: Traumatic brain injury among veterans accessing VA justice-related services",
journal="Journal of head trauma rehabilitation",
year="2023",
author="Holliday, Ryan and Smith, Alexandra A. and Kinney, Adam R. and Forster, Jeri E. and Bahraini, Nazanin and Monteith, Lindsey L. and Brenner, Lisa A.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: Risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI) within both the Veteran population and among individuals with a history of criminal justice involvement is notably high. Despite this, research examining TBI among Veterans with a history of criminal justice involvement (ie, justice-involved Veterans) remains limited. The sequelae of TBI can impact justice-involved Veterans' engagement in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) justice-related services (ie, Veterans Justice Outreach and Health Care for Re-entry Veterans), thus potentially increasing risk for recidivism and impacting psychosocial functioning. As such, further understanding of TBI risk among justice-involved Veterans has the potential to inform the need for tailored screening and interventional efforts within VA justice-related service settings. We sought to better understand relative risk for TBI diagnosis among male and female Veteran recipients and nonrecipients of VA justice-related services. SETTING: Electronic medical record data for Veterans accessing VA services from 2005 to 2018. PARTICIPANTS: 1517 447 (12.48% justice-involved) male and 126 237 (8.89% justice-involved) female Veterans. <br><br>DESIGN: A cross-sectional examination of national VA electronic medical record data. Sex-stratified analyses were conducted to examine relative risk of TBI diagnosis based on use of VA justice-related services. MAIN MEASURES: Documented TBI diagnosis was the main outcome. Covariates included VA service use, age, race, and ethnicity. <br><br>RESULTS: Both male and female Veterans using VA justice-related services were more likely to have a documented TBI diagnosis in their electronic VA medical record. Associations were attenuated, yet maintained significance, in all adjusted and sensitivity models. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Given potential risk for TBI, enhancing and tailoring care for justice-involved Veterans may be critical to facilitating rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. Examination of existing services within justice-related settings and methods of augmenting care is an important next step.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0885-9701",
doi="10.1097/HTR.0000000000000822",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/HTR.0000000000000822"
}