Does deployment impact the health care use of military families stationed in Okinawa, Japan?
Military families are placed under a great deal of stress while serving in the armed forces. In Okinawa, Japan, marines deploy regularly at 3-month intervals throughout the year, leaving behind 7,924 dependents in a single-parent home environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the health care needs of families in a deployed and nondeployed status in Okinawa, Japan. Families enrolled were studied over a 6-month period for levels of self-reliance, coherence, social support, well-being, adaptation, coping, anxiety, and health care visits. The tools that were used included the Family Index of Regenerativity and Adaptation-Military tools and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory. There were 299 families enrolled, of which 80% were marine spouses. A total of 28% of those surveyed were regarded as "high risk" based on the responses received on the surveys. Of these 85 families, 35% (n = 30) were nondeployed (ND), and 65% (n = 55) were from the deployed group (p = 0.03). After phone intervention, 40% of the deployed group and 17% of the ND were classified as stable; however, psychiatric consults were accepted by 29% of deployed group spouses compared with 23% of ND spouses who were identified as high-risk families. Typology change over time identified family dysfunction at 1% in the ND group alone. This study sheds new light on the stressors and subsequent health care needs of both deployed and nondeployed families in an isolated overseas duty location.
McNulty
Peggy Anne Fisher
PA
Clinical Research Department, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA.
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel; D010333:Paternal Deprivation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States