Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27488736›Full record

ArticleBMC health services research2016

A descriptive analysis of medical health services utilization of Veterans living in Ontario: a retrospective cohort study using administrative healthcare data.

Alice B Aiken, Alyson L Mahar, Paul Kurdyak, Marlo Whitehead, Patti A Groome

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Article in BMC health services research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Sharing of military Veterans' mental health data across Canada: A scoping review.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2024
    Review
  2. Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2024
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Canadian Veterans' Experiences of Living with Chronic Pain: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Exploring Veteran cultural competency in Canadian health care services.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2023
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Alice B AikenSchool of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. alice.aiken@queensu.ca.
Alyson L MaharDepartment of Public Health, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Paul KurdyakCentre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Marlo WhiteheadInstitute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Patti A GroomeDepartment of Public Health, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHealth services utilization by Veterans following release may be different than the general population as the result of occupational conditions, requirements and injuries. This study provides the first longitudinal overview of Canadian Veteran healthcare utilization in the Ontario public health system.

methodsThis is a retrospective cohort study designed to use Ontario's provincial healthcare data to study the demographics and healthcare utilization of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) & RCMP Veterans living in Ontario. Veterans were eligible for the study if they released between January 1, 1990 and March 31, 2013. Databases at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences were linked by a unique identifier to study non-mental health related hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and physician visits. Overall and age-stratified descriptive statistics were calculated in five-year intervals following the date of release.

resultsThe cohort is comprised of 23, 818 CAF or RCMP Veterans. Following entry into the provincial healthcare system, 82.6 % (95 % CI 82.1-83.1) of Veterans saw their family physician at least once over the first five years following release, 60.7 % (95 % CI 60.0-61.3) saw a non-mental health specialist, 40.8 % (95 % CI 40.2-41.5) went to the emergency department in that same time period and 9.9 % (9.5-10.3) were hospitalized for non-mental health related complaints. Patterns of non-mental health services utilization appeared to be time and service dependant. Stratifying health services utilization by age of the Veteran at entry into the provincial healthcare system revealed significant differences in service use and intensity.

conclusionThis study provides the first description of health services utilization by Veterans, following release from the CAF or RCMP. This work will inform the planning and delivery of support to Veterans in Ontario.

Indexed as

Patient Acceptance of Health CareVeteransAdultDatabases, FactualEmergency Service, HospitalFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedMilitary PersonnelOntarioPhysicians, FamilyRetrospective StudiesAdministrative healthcare dataHealth servicesMilitary personnelVeterans

Identifiers

PMID27488736
PMCPMC4973105

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.