A new report funded by Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has demonstrated how UK primary care data can be used to better understand the health outcomes of UK former Service personnel. The research, conducted by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College London, used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a large database of anonymised NHS primary care records, to analyse the health outcomes of over 122,000 former Service personnel.
The project demonstrates the feasibility and value of identifying former Service personnel within primary care data at a national scale, importantly allowing planning for the right support to be available for this population.
The study compared the health of former Service personnel with a demographically matched group from the general population, to identify patterns in former Service personnel’s health that can inform healthcare policy.
It found that former Service personnel had higher recorded prevalence of some physical conditions, particularly musculoskeletal problems such as lower back pain and osteoarthritis. Mental health conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were also more common among former Service personnel in the dataset than the general population. It also highlighted that since 2011, the recording of former Service personnel in primary care settings has increased substantially, showing that efforts to ask questions about former Service status have improved identification and contributed to a larger and more reliable primary care database.
The report provides evidence to support ongoing efforts to improve the identification of former Service personnel in primary care. More consistent recording of former Service personnel status in GP records, alongside initiatives such as the Veteran-Friendly GP accreditation, which requires practices to ask patients about prior military service, record this in their electronic health records, and appoint trained veteran leads – could help ensure former Service personnel are better recognised in primary care, enabling access to NHS services specific to former Service personnel.
The data analysed in this study was primarily from former Service personnel in England but this is being expanded to former Service personnel in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through a new grant from Forces in Mind Trust.
Dr Pamela Almeida-Meza, Research Associate at KCMHR and the report’s lead author said:
“This study demonstrates the feasibility and value of identifying former Service personnel on a national scale. It is an exciting tool that can help plan services and holds further potential as the study is expanded to include more records from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
Michelle Alston, Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust, said:
“Understanding the health needs of former Service personnel is essential to ensuring that they can access the right support after leaving the Armed Forces. This is the first large scale approach to identifying former Service personnel in UK primary care data and it therefore offers a powerful tool for policymakers to better identify emerging needs and plan services for the Armed Forces community.”
