Health Status Among 28,000 Women Veterans

BACKGROUND: Male veterans receiving Veterans Health Administration (VA) care have worse health than men in the general population. Less is known about health status in women veteran VA patients, a rapidly growing population. OBJECTIVE: To characterize health status of women (vs men) veteran VA patients across age cohorts, and assess gender differences in the effect of social support upon health status. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Data came from the national 1999 Large Health Survey of Veteran Enrollees (response rate 63%) and included 28,048 women and 651,811 men who used VA in the prior 3 years. MEASUREMENTS: Dimensions of health status from validated Veterans Short Form‐36 instrument; social support (married, living arrangement, have someone to take patient to the doctor). RESULTS: In each age stratum (18 to 44, 45 to 64, and ≥65 years), Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores were clinically comparable by gender, except that for those aged ≥65, mean MCS was better for women than men (49.3 vs 45.9, P