Gender Differences in Rates of Depression, PTSD, Pain, Obesity, and Military Sexual Trauma Among Connecticut War Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

Abstract

Purpose: The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to an increasing number of female veterans seeking medical and mental healthcare in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system. To better understand gender differences in healthcare needs among recently returned veterans, we examined the prevalence of positive screenings for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), military sexual trauma (MST), obesity, and chronic pain among female and male veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom=Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF=OIF) receiving care at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Methods: We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional data analysis of OEF=OIF veterans at VA Connecticut who received services in either Primary Care or the Women's Health Clinic between 2001 and 2006. Results: In this study, 1129 electronic medical records (1032 men, 197 women) were examined. Female veterans were more likely to screen positive for MST (14% vs. 1%, p < 0.001) and depression (48% vs. 39%, p ¼ 0.01) and less likely to screen positive for PTSD (21% vs. 33%, p ¼ 0.002). There was no significant gender difference in clinically significant pain scores. Men were more likely than women to have body mass index (BMI) >30 kg=m 2 (21% vs. 13%, p ¼ 0.008). Conclusions: These results suggest that important gender differences exist in the prevalence of positive screenings for MST, depression, obesity, and PTSD. As the VA continues to review and improve its services for women veterans, clinicians, researchers, and senior leaders should consider innovative ways to ensure that female veterans receive the health services they need within the VA system.

Gender Differences in Response to Deployment Among Military Healthcare Providers in Afghanistan and Iraq

“…This endorsement might be providing a clearer self-reported description of the mental health functioning of the respondents than scores on the PCL-C. The overlap of items from the various instruments used in this analysis showed that although female HCPs in this study were similar to those in prior studies in that they more often endorsed psychologic distress, anxiety, 7,15 depression, 7,8,14,15 and the use of alcohol, 12 they were less likely to screen positive for customary cutoff scores on the PCL-C. The respondents are believed to be a sophisticated group and may well be familiar with the PCL-C and the implications related to a diagnosis of probable PTSD within a military environment.…”

“…11 In some of these studies, female service members were also more likely than men to screen positive for depression. 7,8,11,[13][14][15] Greater psychologic morbidity has been seen in deployed military HCPs, explained by poorer group cohesion and traumatic military medical and postdeployment experiences. 16 Returning HCPs did not think that people understood what they had been through during deployment and felt unsupported.…”

Disability After Deployment Injury: Are Women and Men Service Members Different?

“…As such, the arthritic conditions in our cohort may be presumed to be posttraumatic in nature, potentially establishing a similar gender difference between degenerative and posttrauma arthritis rates. Men in our study had higher frequencies of generalized chronic pain and neurogenic pain conditions, which contradicts previous work that demonstrated higher pain frequencies and healthcare use for pain conditions among women veterans [17][18][19]. Although this may reflect a true difference in pain condition rates, the discrepancy between our results and previous literature likely points to the evolving nature of disability as service members transition to the care of the VA after separation from the military or that having a disability after injury does not necessarily lead to one seeking care for that disability in the VA. One notable lack of difference is between genders for frequency of abdominal and pelvic conditions.…”

Fitness of the US Workforce

“…Figure 2 shows a cluster of studies with above-average obesity prevalence data among firefighters (7,35,83,112), although lower estimates were also reported (33,60). A cluster of studies for the military showed below-average estimates (49,65,107). Firefighters and law-enforcement personnel have previously displayed higher levels of risk related to cardiovascular disease, including overweight and obesity (100).…”