title: Health of national service veterans: an analysis of a community-based sample using data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of England.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In the context of increasing concerns for the health of UK armed forces veterans, this study aims to compare the prevalence of current mental, physical and behavioural difficulties in conscripted national service veterans with population controls, and to assess the impact of length of service in the military. The compulsory nature of national service sets these veterans apart from younger veterans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data are drawn from a nationally representative community-dwelling sample of England. We compared 484 male national service veterans to 301 male non-veterans aged 65+ years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no differences in mental, behavioural or physical outcomes, except that veterans were less likely to have "any mental disorder" than non-veterans (age adjusted OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.31, 0.99). Longer serving veterans were older but were not different in terms of mental, behavioural or physical outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community-dwelling national service veterans are at no greater risk of current adverse mental, physical or behavioural health than population controls.
authors.affiliation: Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, Weston Education Centre, King's College London, Cutcombe Rd, London SE5 9RJ, UK.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Woodhead
authors.forename: Roberto J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rona
authors.forename: Amy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Iversen
authors.forename: Deirdre
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: MacManus
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hotopf
authors.forename: Kimberlie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McManus
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.forename: Traolach
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brugha
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wessely
authors.forename: Nicola T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Fear
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data