Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Health Services Research
Published in: BMC Health Services Research 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

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

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

Published in: BMC Health Services Research | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Health 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.

Methods

This 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.

Results

The 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.

Conclusion

This 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.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
LeBlanc D. Budget bill to upend RCMP health care. Ottawa: The Globe and Mail; 2012.
2.
3.
4.
Thompson JM, Van Til L, Poirier A, Sweet J, McKinnon K, Sudom K, Dursun S, Pedlar D. In: Canada RDVA, editor. Health and well-being of Canadian armed forces veterans: findings from the 2013 life after service survey. Charlottetown: Prince Edward Island: Veterans Affairs Canada; 2014.
5.
6.
Thompson JM, MacLean MB, Van Til L, Sudom K, Sweet J, Poirier A, Adams J, Horton V, Campbell C, Pedlar D. In: Analysis VACDGMPRa, editor. Survey on Transition to Civilian Life: Report on Regular Force Veterans. Charlottetown: Department of National Defense, Ottawa; 2011.
7.
Tien HCN, Acharya S, Redelmeier DA. Preventing deaths in the Canadian military. Am J Prev Med. 2010;38(3):331–9.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Mahar AL, Aiken A, Groome P, Kurdyak P. A new resource to study the health of Veterans in Ontario. J Military Veteran Family Health. 2015;1(1):3–4.CrossRef
9.
Mahar AL, Aiken AB, Kurdyak P, Whitehead M, Groome PA. Description of a longitudinal cohort to study the health of Canadan Veterans living in Ontario. J Military Veteran Family Health. 2016;2(1):33–42.CrossRef
10.
Jaakkimainen L, Schultz SE, Klein-Geltink J, Thiruchelvam D, Kopp A. Ambulatory Physician Care for Adults. In: Jaakkimainen L, Upshur R, Klein-Geltink JE, Leong A, Maaten S, Schultz SE, Wang L, editors. Primary Care in Ontario: ICES Atlas. Toronto: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; 2006.
11.
Steele LS, Glazier RH, Lin E, Evans M. Using administrative data to measure ambulatory mental health service provision in primary care. Med Care. 2004;42(10):960–5.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Porta MS, International Epidemiological A. A dictionary of epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2008.
13.
Thompson JM, Chiasson R, Pedlar D. Launch of the veteran health files series. Can Family Phys. 2008;54(11):1523.
14.
Liu CF, Bryson CL, Burgess Jr JF, Sharp N, Perkins M, Maciejewski ML. Use of outpatient care in VA and medicare among disability-eligible and age-eligible veteran patients. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012;12:51.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
15.
Rais S, Nazerian A, Ardal S, Chechulin Y, Bains N, Malikov K. High-cost Users of Ontario's Healthcare Services. Healthc Policy. 2013;9(1):44–51.PubMedPubMedCentral
16.
Rosella LC, Fitzpatrick T, Wodchis WP, Calzavara A, Manson H, Goel V. High-cost Health Care Users in Ontario, Canada: Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Health Status Characteristics. BMC Health Serv Res. 2014;14:532.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
17.
Stroupe KT, Smith BM, Hogan TP, St Andre JR, Pape T, Steiner ML, Proescher E, Huo Z, Evans CT. Healthcare utilization and costs of Veterans screened and assessed for traumatic brain injury. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2013;50(8):1047–68.CrossRefPubMed
18.
Trends in acute inpatient hospitalizations and day surgery visits in Canada, 1995–1996 to 2005–2006. In: Analysis in Brief. Canadian Institute for Health Information; 2007: 1–26
19.
Chan BTB, Schull MJ, Schultz SE. Emergency department services in Ontario. Toronto: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; 2001. p. 1–52.
20.
Di Leone BA, Wang JM, Kressin N, Vogt D: Women’s Veteran Identity and Utilization of VA Health Services. Psychol Serv. 2016;13(1):60–8
21.
Hoff RA, Rosenheck RA. Female veterans’ use of department of veterans affairs health care services. Med Care. 1998;36(7):1114–9.CrossRefPubMed
22.
Koo KH, Madden E, Maguen S. Race-ethnicity and gender differences in VA health care service utilization among U.S. Veterans of recent conflicts. Psychiatr Serv. 2015;66(5):507–13.CrossRefPubMed
23.
Washington DL, Bean-Mayberry B, Riopelle D, Yano EM. Access to care for women veterans: delayed healthcare and unmet need. J Gen Intern Med. 2011;26 Suppl 2:655–61.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
24.
National Program Evaluation Services RCMP: Gender-based assessment. In.; 2012.
25.
MacLean MB, Poirier A, O’Connor T. In: Canada VA, editor. Province of residence at release and post-release- Data from the income study. Charlottetown: Prince Edward Island: Veterans Affairs Canada; 2011.
26.
Rusu C, Zamorski MA, Boulos D, Garber BG. Prevalence comparisons of past-year metnal disorders and suicidal behaviours in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian general population. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2016;61(Supplement):46–55.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
A descriptive analysis of medical health services utilization of Veterans living in Ontario: a retrospective cohort study using administrative healthcare data
Authors
Alice B. Aiken
Alyson L. Mahar
Paul Kurdyak
Marlo Whitehead
Patti A. Groome
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Health Services Research / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6963
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1596-y

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

BMC Health Services Research 1/2016 Go to the issue

Research article

Shortened first-line TB treatment in Brazil: potential cost savings for patients and health services

Research article

“It’s a complex mesh”- how large-scale health system reorganisation affected the delivery of the immunisation programme in England: a qualitative study

Research article

Uptake of services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in a community cohort in rural Tanzania from 2005 to 2012

Research article

Social media use in healthcare: A systematic review of effects on patients and on their relationship with healthcare professionals

Research article

The “Universal” in UHC and Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: policy and implementation challenges and dilemmas of a lower middle income country

Research article

Associations of frailty with health care costs – results of the ESTHER cohort study