Gender Differences in service connection for XXXX .

@entity1 @entity1005 @entity146
BACKGROUND: Mentally ill female veterans obtain a smaller proportion of their care from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities than mentally ill male veterans do, possibly because @entity1 are less likely than @entity1 to be service connected for @entity146 disabilities. "Service connected" veterans have documented, compensative conditions related to or aggravated by military service, and they receive priority for enrollment into the VA healthcare system. OBJECTIVES: To see if there are gender discrepancies in rates of service connection for @entity1005 ( @entity1005 ) and, if so, to see if these discrepancies could be attributed to appropriate subject characteristics (eg, differences in symptom severity or impairment). RESEARCH DESIGN: Mailed survey linked to administrative data. Claims audits were conducted on 11% of the sample. SUBJECTS: Randomly selected veterans seeking VA disability benefits for @entity1005 . @entity1 were oversampled to achieve a gender ratio of 1:1. RESULTS: A total of 3337 veterans returned usable surveys (effective response rate, 68%). @entity1 's unadjusted rate of service connection for @entity1005 was 71%; @entity1 's, 52% (P < 0.0001). Adjustment for veterans' @entity1005 symptom severity or functional impairment did not appreciably reduce this discrepancy, but adjustment for dissimilar rates of combat exposure did. Estimated rates of service connection were 53% for @entity1 and 56% for @entity1 after adjusting for combat exposure. This combat preference could not be explained by more severe @entity1005 symptoms or greater functional impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Instead of a gender bias in awards for @entity1005 service connection, we found evidence of a combat advantage that disproportionately favored @entity1 . The appropriateness of this apparent advantage is unclear and needs further investigation.
