Long-Term Outcomes of Veterans Discharged with Disabilities from the US Army
Abstract
Our goal is to describe the natural history of disability, from initial injury through discharge from military service to long-term outcomes. The specific objectives are: (1) develop and employ methodology for linking US Army and VA databases for Army service personnel discharged with physical disabilities; (2) identify and compare correlates of long-term outcomes among all US Army personnel discharged with disabilities, focusing first on severe or frequent disability types: (3) assess the feasibility of linking VA databases with other armed service databases that track disability related discharges. This is a retrospective study of veterans who were discharged with a disability from the military between 1985-1999. We are creating a cohort of a random sample of US Army members discharged with either a knee or back related disability, or a knee or back hospitalization within 7 years prior to discharge. Added to this sample is a control group composed of soldiers discharged without any disability or hospitalizations. The control group was selected using a 1:1 sampling ratio per year of discharge. The cohort of 280,444 is composed of 140,222 cases and 140,222 controls. The SSNs for members of the cohort were released to MAVERIC by the USARIEM and were linked to VA inpatient and outpatient utilization data at the Austin Computer Center for fiscal years 1985 to 2000. All matching data records were identified and transferred to MAVERIC and prepared for linkage with the Army records assembled at USARlEM. We are preparing to send the VA utilization and Army records for the cohort to a third party, the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). Expected analyses will focus on the following outcomes: type and intensity of VA services received, change in disability status, and mortality. These outcomes will be correlated with risk factors drawn from the demoarauhic. utilization and health habits variables found in the USARIEM database.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA406086
Entities
People
- Paul J. Amoroso
- Steven Wright