141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

281651
Prevalence and correlates of violent behavior by military service members


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 12:45 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Miranda E. Worthen, AB, MPhil, PhD, Department of Health Science & Recreation, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Sujit D Rathod, PhD, Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Gregory Cohen, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Robert Ursano, MD, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress/Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Robert Gifford, PhD, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Uniformed Services University
Carol Fullerton, PhD, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Uniformed Services University
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
Jennifer Ahern, PhD MPH, Division of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
     
Recent news articles have described an “epidemic” of veterans in trouble with the law, often for violent crimes. Yet behind the headlines, little research has been conducted to examine how common problems controlling violent behavior actually are among military service members or veterans. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a representive sample of current US Reserve and National Guard service members (n = 1,293) to estimate the prevalence of self-reported problems controlling violent behavior in the past year and examine the correlates of these problems. Only 1.6% of women and 3.0% of men reported that they had difficulty controlling violent behavior. We found a higher prevalence of problems with violence among reservists with a high school education or less (6.4%) than among those with a college education (1.6%). We found that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were more likely to report problems with violence: 17% of individuals with PTSD stemming from deployment-related events reported problems with controlling violent behavior, compared to only 2% of individuals without PTSD. We discuss these findings and their implications for public health.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate past research on violence in military service members Explain how problems controlling violent behavior are a public health problem Describe the prevalence of problems with violence in Reserve and National Guard service members Identify the correlates of problems with violence in Reserve and National Guard service members

Keyword(s): Veterans, War

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conducted the research and the study that this data draws from.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4243.0: Health impacts of war on military personnel, veterans, families and communities