Mental health outcomes in military veterans: A latent growth curve model.

Abstract

Some research has suggested that income and mental health are related in the general population. In the present study, we examined the relationship between income and mental health among military service members and veterans. Researchers examined veteran respondents from the 2011–2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2011, n = 64,594; 2012, n = 59,870; 2013, n = 61,505; 2014, n = 62,120), comparing the frequency of poor mental health days in the last 30 days and income levels. Individual-level data were aggregated to the state-level to permit spatiotemporal analysis. Mental health across states varied over the studied period; some states’ mental health indicators improved, whereas some declined. Changes in income predicted changes in mental health among veterans in each state from 2011 to 2014; states with deceases in the percentage of veterans making <$15,000 per year exhibited decreases in poor mental health days. The results illuminate the relationship between mental health and income for military veterans by geographic region. Veteran mental health was at its worst with symptoms reported most frequently (in days) in states with higher percentages of veterans living in poverty. The variability of mental health outcomes by state can be used to inform future programming to meet the needs of military personnel reintegrating into their civilian communities.

Health Status Stability of Patients in a Medical Rehabilitation Program: What Are the Roles of Time, Physical Fitness Level, and Self-efficacy?

“…The results are also in line with Wienert, Schwarz [ 68 ], supporting the conclusion that work-related medical rehabilitation benefited the quality of life and mental health in cancer patients. Furthermore, the LGCM was used, and the results found that military veterans’ mental health demonstrated a quadratic change [ 69 ], and the workers’ psychological well-being showed linear changes [ 70 ]. It is possible that mental health is unstable and impressionable.…”

“…In order to explore the role of rehabilitation treatment, a control group and an experimental design would be interesting in future studies to shed more light on specific intervention variables and how they influence related health outcomes. Fourth, it is unknown whether the findings of this study could be applied to other populations, such as workers with job burnout [ 88 ], unemployed persons [ 89 , 90 ], or military personnel [ 69 , 91 ]. Further research could generalize the conclusions among other populations to explore the internal mechanisms of the mental and physical changes and lay a theoretical foundation for further intervention research, such as interventions for occupational health [ 92 ].…”

Impact of combat exposure on mental health trajectories in later life: Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study.

“…Thus, other variables may need to be considered in the future studies, such as other traumas including natural disasters, accidents, or disease (Infurna, Gerstorf, & Ram, 2013; Knight, Gatz, Heller, & Bengtson, 2000), smoking (Byers et al, 2012), and alcohol use (Brennan, SooHoo, Lemke, & Schutte, 2016) that can be associated with poorer mental health during adulthood. Moreover, research shows that socioeconomic factors such as income (McDaniel, Thomas, Albright, Fletcher, & Shields, 2018) and personal characteristics such as optimism (Thomas, Britt, Odle-Dusseau, & Bliese, 2011) influenced the effect of combat exposure on mental health outcomes. These variables should be taken into consideration in future studies.…”