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Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Veterans in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is a long-term study of aging Canadians. In total, 51,338 Canadians (aged 45 to 85) participated in the first round of this study held between 2011 and 2015. Veterans Affairs Canada partnered with the CLSA to have the following included in the study: 1) a set of Veteran Identifier questions; and 2) a screening tool for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
What is this Research About?
The goal of this research is to learn more about the mental health of Canadian Veterans, and PTSD in particular.
What did the Researchers Do?
About 4,500 participants in the CLSA self-identified as Veterans, with military service dating back as early as 1941. Using this data, the researchers examined the rates of PTSD among Canadian Veterans and tried to determine if there were any differences across sub-groups of Veterans. They also made comparisons to the non-Veterans in the study.
What did the Researchers Find?
- The majority of Regular Force Veterans in the study were aged 65+ and 90% were male. The male/female split for other Canadians (i.e., “non-Veterans”) was 45% male/55% female
- Most participants, both Veteran and non-Veteran, screened negative for depressive symptoms and few reported a physician’s diagnosis of anxiety disorder (6.7% of Regular Force Veterans and 8.3% of non-Veterans)
- The vast majority of participants self-reported their general health, mental health and healthy aging as excellent, very good or good
- Most Regular Force Veterans (86.7%) and non-Veterans (85.6% ) were satisfied with life
- 7.6% of Regular Force Veterans screened positive for PTSD compared to 4.9% of Reserve Force Veterans and 5.2% of non-Veterans
- Factors associated with increased odds of PTSD among Veterans included:
- younger age
- being fully retired
- depression
- self-reported anxiety
- having two or more chronic health conditions (i.e., multi-morbidity)
Source
Gauvin D, Wolfson C, Aiken A. Feinstein A, Raina P, VanTil L. Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Veterans in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health; December 2021.