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Health of national service veterans: an analysis of a community-based sample using data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of England

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Abstract

Purpose

In the context of increasing concerns for the health of UK armed forces veterans, this study aims to compare the prevalence of current mental, physical and behavioural difficulties in conscripted national service veterans with population controls, and to assess the impact of length of service in the military. The compulsory nature of national service sets these veterans apart from younger veterans.

Method

Data are drawn from a nationally representative community-dwelling sample of England. We compared 484 male national service veterans to 301 male non-veterans aged 65+ years.

Results

There were no differences in mental, behavioural or physical outcomes, except that veterans were less likely to have “any mental disorder” than non-veterans (age adjusted OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.31, 0.99). Longer serving veterans were older but were not different in terms of mental, behavioural or physical outcomes.

Conclusions

Community-dwelling national service veterans are at no greater risk of current adverse mental, physical or behavioural health than population controls.

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Acknowledgments

All work for this paper was carried out within ACDMH/KCMHR. Both units receive funding from the UK Ministry of Defence. The authors’ work was independent of the UK Ministry of Defence, which had no role in the analysis, interpretation or decision to submit this paper. We disclosed the paper to the Ministry of Defence at the point we submitted it for publication. S. Wessely and M. Hotopf are partially funded by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust/Institute of Psychiatry National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre. The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey was commissioned by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care for the Department of Health.

Conflict of interest statement

S.W. is an honorary Civilian Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army Medical Services and a Trustee of Combat Stress, a UK charity that provides services and support for veterans with mental health problems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, Weston Education Centre, King’s College London, Cutcombe Rd, London, SE5 9RJ, UK

    Charlotte Woodhead & Nicola T. Fear

  2. King’s Centre for Military Health Research, King’s College London, London, UK

    Roberto J. Rona, Amy C. Iversen, Matthew Hotopf & Simon Wessely

  3. Forensic Mental Health Science, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK

    Deirdre MacManus & Kimberlie Dean

  4. National Centre for Social Research, London, UK

    Sally McManus

  5. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Howard Meltzer & Traolach Brugha

  6. WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Section of Mental Health Policy, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK

    Rachel Jenkins

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  1. Charlotte Woodhead
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  2. Roberto J. Rona
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  3. Amy C. Iversen
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  4. Deirdre MacManus
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  5. Matthew Hotopf
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  6. Kimberlie Dean
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  7. Sally McManus
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  8. Howard Meltzer
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  9. Traolach Brugha
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  10. Rachel Jenkins
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  11. Simon Wessely
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  12. Nicola T. Fear
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicola T. Fear.

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Woodhead, C., Rona, R.J., Iversen, A.C. et al. Health of national service veterans: an analysis of a community-based sample using data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of England. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 46, 559–566 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0232-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0232-0

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