Associations between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Quality of Life and Alcohol Misuse among UK Veterans
Abstact: Prior research has shown that those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have persistent reductions in quality of life (QoL), and higher rates of alcohol misuse. As such, it is important that we explore QoL and alcohol misuse on PTSD diagnosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the association between PTSD, QoL and alcohol misuse among United Kingdom (UK) veterans. 163 UK veterans who sought help for a mental health disorder were recruited to take part. Linear regressions were used to assess the association between probable PTSD, QoL and alcohol misuse. Pearson’s correlation analyses were used to assess the relationship between PTSD symptom clusters and QoL domains. We found unadjusted regressions showed evidence that, compared to those without PTSD, those with PTSD had lower QoL scores on physical health, psychosocial, social relationships and environment domains. Adjusting for age, sex, and outcome variables, only associations with the physical health domain and psychosocial domain remained statistically significant. Correlation analyses between PTSD and QoL domains showed the strongest negative correlations between the functional impairment and physical health domain, and between the functional impairment and psychosocial domain. We found that those with probable PTSD had lower QoL and higher alcohol misuse scores.
Abstract: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the largest integrated health care system in the US. However, most enrollees (80%) have other health insurance. Veterans’ selective use of VA health care creates an immense challenge for VA leadership, the scale of which is relatively unknown. The VA allocates substantial resources to improve equitable access, prevent suicides, and provide transparency on hospital quality by analyzing VA-provided and VA-purchased care. These analyses will be inaccurate if patient health and reliance on the VA are linked, especially as the VA expands its role as a payer of care and the recently passed PACT Act brings in younger veterans, who are more likely to have private health insurance. This study investigated whether VA reliance was associated with self-reported health, a predictor of health outcomes, and whether this association varied for individuals with different types of outside insurance using a nationally representative survey.