Abstract
Because the mental health burden of PTSD among many racial and ethnic minority veterans is greater than among non-Latinx Whites (NLW) and there are disparities in VHA mental health treatment, we evaluated variations in clinical outcomes across veteran racial and ethnic groups in a large national cohort diagnosed with PTSD in VHA. This was a planned secondary analysis of patient-reported outcomes from a large prospective cohort study of veterans with PTSD. Veterans were surveyed immediately following a PTSD diagnosis and again 6 months later. Changes in PTSD symptoms and mental health quality of life were modeled using initial measures of these factors and demographic characteristics. Primary analyses modeled outcomes constructed from a sample restricted to veterans who initiated some mental health care in the 6-month follow-up period (n = 2,992). Additionally, outcomes were modeled using the full cohort of treatment initiators and noninitiators (n = 5,070). Sensitivity and post hoc analyses were used to examine robustness of our findings and to facilitate interpretability. Disparities in PTSD and mental health quality of life outcomes were observed for some racial and ethnic minority groups of veterans. Although improvements in PTSD symptoms and mental health quality of life have been highly associated in other studies, in this sample these outcomes were interrelated in complex ways across groups.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 584-594 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Psychological Services |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Grant (IAC-06-266) awarded to the Michele Spoont. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government. A portion of this work was presented as a poster at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, November 9–11, 2017, Chicago, Illinois
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Psychological Services. All Rights Reserved
Keywords
- PTSD
- outcomes
- posttraumatic stress disorder
- race disparities
- veterans
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article