Veterans present with the same types of conditions seen in all Australians, albeit often at an earlier age and with different types of exposures. Ensuring you are knowledgeable about these problems and the resources available to support veterans will help to significantly improve their health outcomes.
Key Learnings
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Two important data sources for information on veterans' health are:
Based on self-reported data from the 2020–21 National Health Survey:
Note: The relatively low numbers of women who have ever served in the ADF constrains reporting on the health of women who have served; therefore, most reports typically present only data for men aged 18 years and over.
Data in the Physical Health Status Report (2018) show that veterans, as a group, are more likely than the general Australian population to suffer from:
These conditions may lead to a range of behaviours including anger, being uncooperative, displaying thoughts of self-harm, demonstrating risky behaviours through alcohol use or exhibiting unacceptable social behaviours.
According to the Physical Health Status Report 2018, the 10 most common symptoms reported by both current serving (2015) and transitioned (2010–2014) ADF personnel were:
● fatigue
● sleeping difficulties
● headaches
● feeling unrefreshed after sleep
● muscle aches or pains
● low back pain
● irritable outburst
● joint stiffness
● difficulty finding the right word
● ringing in the ears
The five most commonly reported doctor-diagnosed conditions among transitioned (2010-2014) ADF were:
The five most commonly reported doctor-diagnosed conditions among current serving (2015) ADF were:
Male veterans are more likely to self-report experiencing long-term health conditions than males who have never served. This includes higher rates of:
According to a number of studies cited in AIHW’s 2018 report, A profile of Australia’s veterans, some veteran cohorts have higher rates of chronic conditions than the Australian population; for example:
Male Vietnam War veterans
Male Korean veterans
Male Gulf War veterans
An accepted claim condition is an injury or disease that has been determined under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986, Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA)or the Safety Rehabilitation & Compensation (Defence Related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA) to be war-caused or defence-caused, and for which Veterans are eligible for compensation. Veterans will frequently enlist the aid of their GP in submitting this claim paperwork.
Claim data does not represent the full range of conditions seen in veterans, only those related to service which attract compensation.
The DVA provides data on the number of veterans and number of accepted conditions relating to claims under the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA). More details: Accepted conditions for veterans of selected conflicts (Mar 2024)
As at March 2024, for veterans deployed to conflicts in East Timor, Solomon Islands, Afghanistan and Iraq, there were:
The top 10 accepted conditions for the selected conflicts across East Timor, Solomon Islands, Afghanistan and Iraq were:
According to self-reported data from the 2020–21 NHS:
These proportions were around twice as high as those of males who had never served (17% and 12%, respectively).
As at June 2021, there were 189,500 veterans with an accepted disability, equating to 72% of the DVA treatment population.
Catherine is a GP in Geelong, Victoria. She has been involved in a wide variety of Medical Education opportunities, these include GP training, lecturing in Medicine at Deakin University, and providing clinical consultancy for the Deakin Indigenous Health team. Over recent years Catherine has moved into planning and facilitating the professional development of Medical Educators and GP Supervisors as well as learning (like everyone else) to do all of this online. Catherine strives to ensure her education events are engaging and innovative, with a dose of appropriate fun.
A person's health and wellbeing are influenced by socioeconomic characteristics – for veterans, these may be influenced by factors relating to their unique experiences of ADF service and transition back to civilian life.
This useful tool shows the aspects of the Veteran Health Check to incorporate into all relevant consultations with Veterans at any time after transition, including a useful autofill template.
Launching tomorrow, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has partnered with medical education company Medcast, to provide freely available resources for health professionals to assess and manage veterans’ health.