title: The National Health Study for a New Generation of United States Veterans: methods for a large-scale study on the health of recent veterans.
abstract: This article describes the methodology used in the "National Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans," a large-scale longitudinal study of the health of 30,000 Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) veterans, and 30,000 veterans who were not deployed to these conflicts. Veterans could participate by mail, online, or through a computer-assisted telephone interview. A medical records review was also conducted to validate responses to the survey. The response rate was 34.3%, with 20,563 surveys accepted. This study underscores the complexity of sampling and studying this population of recent veterans.
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Program (10P3A), Office of Public Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20420, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eber
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barth
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mahan
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dursa
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schneiderman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012107:Research Design; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans; D055815:Young Adult