Long-Term Outcomes of Service Women Injured on Combat Deployment

Jessica R. Watrous, Cameron T. McCabe, Amber L. Dougherty, Abigail M. Yablonsky, Gretchen Jones, Judith Harbertson and Michael R. Galarneau
Additional contact information
Jessica R. Watrous: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Cameron T. McCabe: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Amber L. Dougherty: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Abigail M. Yablonsky: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Gretchen Jones: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Judith Harbertson: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Michael R. Galarneau: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 18, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Sex- and gender-based health disparities are well established and may be of particular concern for service women. Given that injured service members are at high risk of adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes, it is important to address any such disparities in this group, especially in regard to patient-reported outcomes, as much of the existing research has focused on objective medical records. The current study addressed physical and mental health-related quality of life, mental health symptoms, and health behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, sleep, and physical activity) among a sample of service women injured on deployment. Results indicate that about half of injured service women screened positive for a mental health condition, and also evidenced risky health behaviors including problematic drinking, poor sleep, and physical inactivity. Many of the mental and behavioral health variables demonstrated statistically significant associations with each other, supporting the relationships between psychological health and behaviors. Results provide additional evidence for the importance of access to integrated and effective mental healthcare treatment for injured service women and the need for screening in healthcare settings that address the multiple factors (e.g., mental health symptoms, alcohol use, poor sleep) that may lead to poor outcomes.

Keywords: women’s health; military; veterans; mental health; patient-reported outcomes; health behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/39/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/39/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:39-:d:467151

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().