Unique Impact
The journal article explained that, in most cases, mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety tend to decrease or remain stable during adulthood but can increase in later life. Combat exposure has a unique impact on that trajectory, independent of other health issues or stressful life events, however.
“In late life, it’s pretty normal to do a life review,” Aldwin said. “For combat veterans, that review of life experiences and losses may have more of an impact on their mental health. They may need help to see meaning in their service and not just dwell on the horrors of war.”
One way to reduce the mental health risks for veterans is to welcome them home and focus on reintegration, she suggested.
The data used was collected from 1985 to 1991, and the 1,105 participants had an age range of 40-86 years old at the beginning of the study. Therefore, most of the veterans had served in World War II or the Korean War. Aldwin suggested that more information is needed on how more recent veterans fared and how experiences varied from war to war.
That question is behind a pilot study being conducted by OSU; the VALOR, or Veterans Aging: Longitudinal studies in Oregon, are being used to better understand impacts of combat exposure in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and the post-9/11 conflicts.
So far, researchers have collected data from 300 veterans and are beginning to analyze it.
“Each war is different. They are going to affect veterans differently,” Aldwin said. “Following 9-11, traumatic brain injuries have risen among veterans, while mortality rates have lowered. We have many more survivors with far more injuries. These veterans have had a much higher levels of exposure to combat, as well.”
VALOR also offers researchers the opportunity to explore the impact of service on women veterans, whose experiences have not often been captured in previous research. About one-third of the participants in the pilot study were female veterans, she added.
Lee H, Aldwin CM, Choun S, Spiro A. Impact of combat exposure on mental health trajectories in later life: Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. Psychol Aging. 2019 Jun;34(4):467-474. doi: 10.1037/pag0000334. Epub 2019 Feb 28. PubMed PMID: 30816736.