Women and War. What Physicians Should Know

Overview

Journal J Gen Intern Med

Publisher Springer

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2006 Apr 28

PMID 16637946

Citations 29

Authors

Maureen Murdoch

Arlene Bradley

Susan H Mather

Robert E Klein

Carole L Turner

Elizabeth M Yano

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

Citing Articles

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Trends in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in US Women Veterans vs Civilians.

Ebrahimi R, Yano E, Alvarez C, Dennis P, Shroyer A, Beckham J JAMA Netw Open. 2023; 6(10):e2340242.

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Caribbean Homeless Women Veterans: Military and Psychosocial Characteristics and the Association of Service-connected Disabilities.

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