Health Care Utilization in OEF/OIF Veterans with Closed TBI

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a prevalent and costly condition among U.S. veterans. We used a case-controlled review of Veterans Affairs (VA) administrative data to describe outpatient health care utilization (HCU) in a sample of 780 veterans with history of closed TBI and an equivalent number of controls. Results suggest higher rates of HCU in veterans with TBI, plus an additive effect of TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in behavioral health utilization. Veterans with TBI history and current PTSD used many times more behavioral health appointments than veterans with TBI alone, and about 1.5 times as many behavioral health appointments as veterans with PTSD alone.

Keywords:

• Administrative data
• brain concussion
• health services
• health care utilization
• military
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• PTSD
• traumatic brain injury
• TBI
• veterans

Acknowledgments

This article is not subject to US copyright law.

Writing of this manuscript was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Academic Affiliations, Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Integrated Healthcare, Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System at Buffalo. All authors are employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors wish to thank Glenn Mead for his assistance with data collection. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. government.