Providers' increased awareness of the physical and mental health care needs of this population is warranted. OIF/OEF women receiving VA health care in Puerto Rico evidenced a greater burden of physical illness, depression, and heightened use of VA health care services relative to their U.S. They also evidenced greater risk for a host of reproductive health conditions and had higher average annual use of VA health care than their U.S. (PTSD) in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Free-dom (OIF/OEF) veterans who were seen at a Department of Vet-erans Affairs outpatient polytrauma clinic. Results of fully adjusted logistic regression models revealed that OIF/OEF women in Puerto Rico had heightened risk for global pain-related disorders (i.e., any pain) (adjusted odds ratio, 1.45 95% confidence interval, 1.22-1.71), back pain (AOR, 1.83 95% CI, 1.56-2.14), diabetes (AOR, 1.42 95% CI, 1.03-1.95), hyperlipidemia (AOR, 3.34 95% CI, 2.80-3.98), major depression (AOR, 1.78 95% CI, 1.53-2.06), and bipolar depression (AOR, 1.66 95% CI, 1.34-2.04).
This cross-sectional study examines differences in physical and mental health conditions, and patterns of VA health care use, between women veterans of the Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) era who were using VA facilities in Puerto Rico (n = 897) and those using U.S.-based VA facilities (n = 117,216) from 2002 to 2015. Research on the physical and mental health profiles and patterns of health care use among women veterans receiving health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the island of Puerto Rico is lacking. 7 Departments of Quantitative Health Sciences, Psychiatry and Family Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts Veterans Affairs Central Western Massachusetts Health Care System, Leeds, Massachusetts.6 Veterans Affairs Connecticut Health Care System, West Haven, Connecticut Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.5 School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Dallas, Dallas, Texas.4 Veterans Affairs Caribbean Health Care System, San Juan, Puerto Rico.3 Departments of Quantitative Health Sciences, Psychiatry and Family Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts.Electronic address: 2 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico & University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1 Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Center for Innovation to Implementation (CI2I), Menlo Park, California Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
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