ArticleBMJ open2020
Does screening shorten delays to care for post-deployment mental disorders in military personnel? A longitudinal retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Development and Implementation of a Veteran Family Stress Screening Tool.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Post-deployment screening in the Canadian military: Translating evaluation research into program recommendations.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2025Article
- Delays in treatment initiation for posttraumatic stress disorder in the Canadian Armed Forces: A scoping review.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether post-deployment screening is associated with a shorter delay to diagnosis and care among individuals identified with a deployment-related mental disorder.
designRetrospective cohort study.
settingCanadian military population.
participantsThe cohort consisted of personnel (n=28 460) with a deployment within the 2009 to 2014 time frame. A stratified random sample (n=3004) was selected for medical chart review. We restricted our analysis to individuals who had an opportunity to undergo screening and were subsequently diagnosed with a mental disorder that a clinician indicated was deployment-related (n=1157).
interventionsPost-deployment health screening.
main outcome measureThe outcome was delay to diagnosis and care, the latency from individuals' deployment return to their mental disorder diagnosis date. Cox proportional hazards regression assessed screening's influence on this outcome.
results74.4% of the study population had screened. Overall, the median delay to care was 766 days, 578 days among screeners and 928 days among non-screeners-a 350-day difference. Cox regression indicated that screeners had a significantly shorter delay to care (adjusted HR (aHR), 1.43 (95% CI, 1.11 to 1.86)). Screening findings had a substantial influence on delay to care. Identification of a mental health concern, whether a 'major' concern (aHR, 3.36 (95% CI, 2.38 to 4.73)) or a 'minor' concern (aHR, 1.46 (95% CI, 1.08 to 1.99)), and a recommendation for mental health services follow-up (aHR, 2.35 (95% CI, 1.73 to 3.21)) were strongly associated with shorter delays to care relative to non-screeners.
conclusionsReduced delays to care are anticipated to lead to beneficial outcomes for both the individual and military organisation. We found that screening was associated with a shortened delay to care for mental disorders that were deployment-related. Future work will further explore this screening's components and optimisation strategies.
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