WASHINGTON, DC (September 20, 2024)—Recent decades have seen substantial progress in research on the health and health care use of US women veterans, but how much of that research has included findings specifically about American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women veterans? The authors of a new scoping review selected as the September/October Editor’s Choice in Women’s Health Issues identified several areas where more research for this population is needed.
Women’s Health Issues is the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, which is based at the Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University.
Mary K. Good, of the Iowa City VA Health Care System and University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and colleagues searched for studies on US veterans that reported findings specifically for AI/AN women veterans. They identified 28 studies; two of the studies used qualitative methods, and the rest were observational. Good and colleagues categorized studies according to their topics and found that 10 addressed mental health conditions, seven focused on physical health, and 11 dealt with access to care or care utilization.
The authors note that most of the studies used Veterans Health Administration (VA) healthcare data, so the findings only reflect the experiences of the 25% of AI/AN women veterans who use VA health care. They highlight several topics important for AI/AN women veterans that are not addressed in the literature, including depression, suicide, and cardiometabolic disorders. “Moreover,” they write, “there is scarce research specific to cultural, tribal, and regional factors that likely affect access and use of particular health care systems or that can affect perspectives on illness that impact long-term treatment adherence and patient outcomes.”
Good and colleagues identify ways researchers can begin filling the gaps their scoping review identified — for instance, “Researchers conducting studies on race/ethnicity as it pertains to veteran health might consider oversampling AI/AN veterans in future studies to expand their ability to report on this group.” They also point out, “Given the high percentage of AI/AN veterans living in rural or highly rural areas, examinations of AI/AN veteran health and health care by rurality represents a critical direction for future research.”
“Achieving the goal of health equity requires examining experiences and outcomes of many different groups,” said Karen McDonnell, Editor-in-Chief of Women's Health Issues and associate professor of prevention and community health at Milken Institute SPH. “This scoping review both helps us learn about the research that already reports on health and health care of American Indian and Alaska Native veterans and identifies next steps for building a more robust evidence base to help improve health care and outcomes.”
“Health and Health Care Use of American Indian/Alaska Native Women Veterans: A Scoping Review” has been published in the September/October 2024 issue of Women’s Health Issues.