Comparative Analysis of Mandated Versus Voluntary Administrations of Post-Deployment Health Assessments Among Marines
Abstract
Little empirical data exists regarding candidness of service members? responses on the mandated Postdeployment Health Risk Assessment (PDHRA) administered 3-6 months post-deployment. This study reports on the agreement between responses from US Marines on a subset of the military-administered mandatory PDHRA items and answers to the same subset of items embedded in confidential research surveys. Results show that personnel are clearly underreporting certain symptoms and conditions on the mandatory PDHRA. The most dramatic increases in reporting on the research study's PDHRA items, as indicated by the percentage ratio, were for self-harming ideation and concern about harming others, each of which has about 14 times the endorsement percentage on the survey as on the official PDHRA. Lack of agreement for some items may be the result of resolution or onset of more acute conditions, but disagreement on sensitive behavioral concerns suggests that mandated PDHRAs are not effective screens for those domains.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA563284
Entities
People
- Belinda Weimer
- Gerald Larson
- Laurel L Hourani
- Randy Bender
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center