Invited Commentary

Commentary on “Understanding the Health Needs and Barriers to Seeking Health Care of Veteran Students in the Community”

Authors: K. Christopher McMains, MD

Abstract

More than 2.7 million service personnel served in Afghanistan and Iraq in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).1 This number exceeds the total number of Union forces during the Civil War. Although these military engagements have occupied much public attention, when viewed through the lens of an overall US population of 308.7 million, the number of veterans represents G1% of the overall population.2 Another way of thinking about this is that for 99% of the US population, the experience of these conflicts is known only secondarily, through friends and family, news reporting, and dramatizations.

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References

1. CTS Deployment File Baseline Report, Defense Manpower Data Center. Provided to Epidemiology Program by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. September 30, 2014.
 
2. US Census 2010. https://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/. Accessed May 7, 2015.
 
3. Committee on the Assessment of the Readjustment Needs of Military Personnel, Veterans, and Their Families; Board on the Health of Select Populations; Institute of Medicine. Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan: Assessment of Readjustment Needs of Veterans, Service Members, and Their Families. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2013.
 
4. Epidemiology Program, Post-Deployment Health Group, Office of Public Health, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. 2014.
 
5. Epidemiology Program, Post-Deployment Health Group, Office of Public Health, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. Analysis of VA health care utilization among Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans cumulative from 1st qtr FY 2002 through 4th qtr FY 2014 (October 1, 2001-September 30, 2014). http://www.publichealth.va.gov/docs/epidemiology/healthcare-utilization-report-fy2014-qtr4.pdf. Published January 2015. Accessed May 26, 2015.
 
6. Hoge CW, McGurk D, Thomas JL, et al. Mild traumatic brain injury in U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq. N Engl J Med 2008;358:453-463.
 
7. Misra-Hebert AD, Santurri L, DeChant R, et al. Understanding the health needs and barriers to seeking health care of veteran students in the community. South Med J 2015;108:488-493.
 
8. President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, 1865. http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=38. Accessed May 26, 2015.