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Women and war

What physicians should know

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Abstract

Most of today’s 1.7 million women veterans obtain all or most of their medical care outside the VA health care system, where their veteran status is rarely recognized or acknowledged. Several aspects of women’s military service have been associated with adverse psychologic and physical outcomes, and failure to assess women’s veteran status, their deployment status, and military trauma history could delay identifying or treating such conditions. Yet few clinicians know of women’s military history—or of military service’s impact on women’s subsequent health and well being. Because an individual’s military service may be best understood within the historical context in which it occurred, we provide a focused historical overview of women’s military contributions and their steady integration into the Armed Forces since the War for Independence. We then describe some of the medical and psychiatric conditions associated with military service.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of General Internal Medicine/CCDOR (111-0), Minneapolis VA Medical Center, One Veterans Drive, 55417, Minneapolis, MN

    Maureen Murdoch MD, MPH

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Maureen Murdoch MD, MPH

  3. VA Roseburg Healthcare System, Roseburg, OR, USA

    Arlene Bradley MD, FACP

  4. Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, Veterans Health Administration, Washington, DC, USA

    Susan H. Mather MD, MPH

  5. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Actuary, Washington, DC, USA

    Robert E. Klein PhD, MA

  6. Women Veterans Health Program, Veterans Health Administration, Washington, DC, USA

    Carole L. Turner RNP, MN, CNAA

  7. VA Greater Los Angeles Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior, Sepulveda, CA, USA

    Elizabeth M. Yano PhD, MSPH

  8. Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Elizabeth M. Yano PhD, MSPH

Authors
  1. Maureen Murdoch MD, MPH
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  2. Arlene Bradley MD, FACP
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  3. Susan H. Mather MD, MPH
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  4. Robert E. Klein PhD, MA
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  5. Carole L. Turner RNP, MN, CNAA
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  6. Elizabeth M. Yano PhD, MSPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maureen Murdoch MD, MPH.

Additional information

Disclaimer: The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Dr. Murdoch is a core investigator for the Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research, Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Dr. Bradley is Director of Women’s Health at the VA Roseburg Healthcare System and Chair of the VISN 20 Women Veterans Health Advisory Committee. Ms. Turner is the Director of the Women Veterans Health Program, Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Mather is the former Chief Public Health & Environmental Hazards Officer, Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Klein is a statistician in VA’s Office of the Actuary. Dr. Yano is Deputy Director and Senior Social Scientist for the Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior. The Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research and The Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior are VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Service Centers of Excellence.

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Murdoch, M., Bradley, A., Mather, S.H. et al. Women and war. J GEN INTERN MED 21 (Suppl 3), S5–S10 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00368.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00368.x

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