Women Veterans Project: Operation Iraqi Freedom. Final Report May 1, 2004-April 30, 2008.

摘要

The opportunity to study the health consequences of women serving in the most recent Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in a timely fashion meets a critical and long-standing need. Despite the increased emphasis of health surveillance following the Persian Gulf War (PGW), there remains many unanswered questions regarding the effects of wartime deployment on key outcomes that directly influence the readiness posture of todays military force. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to conduct a comprehensive cross-sectional study of women deployed in service of OIF, to disentangle the multiple, additive and interactive effects of war-related stressors including mobilization and deployment, and other predisposing factors that impact physical and mental health as well as retention in the armed forces. Our survey design randomly recruited 1,477 Air Force women to determine the effects of various deployment experiences, work, and family stressors on womens physical and mental health as well as on their likelihood to remain in military service. Our overall goal was to construct and validate two hypothesized models that describe the effects of deployment as well as key demographic variables and job stressors, on the physical and mental health of the servicewomen, and on their intention to remain in the Air Force following service during OIF. These models provide critical information for policymaking as well as the development of interventions to improve the health of military women recovering from, and preparing for, wartime mobilization and their motivation to remain in military service following deployment.