Today, we’re launching the final report of the fourth phase of our Health and Wellbeing Cohort Study (2022-2023). Findings revealed rises in probable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Common Mental Disorders (CMD) such as depression and anxiety among serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK Armed Forces since the last phase of the study in 2014-2016. CMD was the most prevalent in the cohort reported at 28%, followed by probable PTSD at 9% and alcohol misuse at 8%.
Background
The study has been running since 2003 with the aim of investigating the impact of deployment to Iraq (Operation TELIC) and Afghanistan (Operation HERRICK) on the health and wellbeing of serving and ex-serving personnel.
Data have been collected over three previous phases – Phase 1 (2004/06), Phase 2 (2007/09), and Phase 3 (2014/16), with the most recent phase taking place over 2022/23. In addition to examining key mental health outcomes such as CMD, probable PTSD and alcohol misuse, this phase also collected new data on additional topics relevant to UK serving and ex-serving personnel including complex PTSD (C-PTSD), loneliness and caring responsibilities.
For Phase 4 (2022/23), we followed up participants who took part in the previous phase in 2014/16. 4104 participants completed the survey. 69% of the sample had deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan and 72% had left service.
