Contribution of the Mission in Afghanistan to the Burden of Past-Year Mental Disorders in Canadian Armed Forces Personnel, 2013
Open accessAbstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the contribution of the mission in Afghanistan to the burden of mental health problems in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Methods: Data were obtained from the 2013 Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey, which assessed mental disorders using the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The sample consisted of 6696 Regular Force (RegF) personnel, 3384 of whom had deployed in support of the mission. We estimated the association of past-year mental health problems with Afghanistan deployment status, adjusting for covariates using logistic regression; population attributable fractions (PAFs) were also calculated. Results: Indication of a past-year mental disorder was identified in 18.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.0% to 19.7%) of Afghanistan deployers compared with 14.6% (95% CI, 13.3% to 15.8%) in others. Afghanistan-related deployments contributed to the burden of a past-year disorder (PAF = 8.7%; 95% CI, 3.0% to 14.2%), with the highest PAFs being seen for panic disorder (34.7%) and posttraumatic stress disorder (32.1%). The PAFs for individual alcohol use disorders and suicide ideation were not different from zero. Child abuse, however, had a much greater PAF for any past-year disorder (28.7%; 95% CI, 23.4% to 33.7%) than did the Afghanistan mission. Conclusions: The mission in Afghanistan contributed significantly to the burden of mental disorders in the CAF RegF in 2013. However, the much stronger contribution of child abuse highlights the need for strong military mental health systems, even in peacetime, and the need to target the full range of determinants of mental health in prevention and control efforts.
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Trauma exposure is unlikely to be the only, or even the most important, factor for mental health.
“This suggests trauma exposure is unlikely the only, or even the most important, factor for mental health.49,50”
From Mental Disorder Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel in Canada (2018) · cites this paper as [50]
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Mental Disorder Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel in Canada
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Boulos, D., & Zamorski, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Canadian Armed Forces (CA)
- University of Ottawa (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Boulos, David
- Venue
- The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-03-16
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 1_suppl
- Pages
- 64S-76S
- ISSN
- 0706-7437 (ISSN-L)
- 1497-0015
- PMC
- PMC4800477
- OpenAlex
- W2314187847
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6
- FWCI
- 9.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Keywords
- military mental health, Afghanistan deployment, Canadian Armed Forces, population attributable fraction, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, child abuse, alcoholism, suicidal ideation, military personnel
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Alcoholism, Canada, Combat Disorders, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Military Personnel, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Panic Disorder, Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, Young Adult, Afghan Campaign 2001-, Suicidal Ideation
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