• Kelly H Koo, Claire L Hebenstreit, Erin Madden, Karen H Seal, and Shira Maguen.
• San Francisco VA Health Care System, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA; University of California, San Francisco, Department of Psychiatry, San Francisco, CA 94122, USA. Electronic address: Kelly.Koo@va.gov.
• Psychiatry Res. 2015 Oct 30; 229 (3): 724-31.

AbstractVeterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; predominantly in Afghanistan) and Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn (OIF and OND; predominantly in Iraq) and are enrolled in the VA are comprised of a growing cohort of women and higher proportions of racial/ethnic minorities than civilians. To compare rates of mental health disorders by race/ethnicity and gender for this diverse cohort, we conducted a retrospective analysis of existing records from OEF/OIF/OND veterans who were seen at the VA 10/7/01-8/1/2013 (N=792,663). We found that race/ethnicity was related to diagnoses of mental health disorders. Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PIs) were diagnosed with all disorders at lower rates than whites, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) males were diagnosed with most disorders at higher rates than white males. Research is needed to identify contributing factors to differential rates of diagnoses based on race/ethnicity and gender. A/PIs and AI/ANs have unique patterns of mental health diagnoses indicating they should be considered separately to present a comprehensive picture of veteran mental health. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

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