Rewarding and unrewarding aspects of deployment to Iraq and its association with psychological health in UK military personnel.

Purpose: Research into how individuals perceive their deployment experiences is important for understanding the association between stressful events and subsequent positive or negative effects. This study examines perceptions among UK military personnel with regard to rewarding and unrewarding aspects of deployment in Iraq.

Methods: Analyses were carried out on 5,573 UK military personnel who had deployed to Iraq between 2003 and 2006. Information on socio-demographic and military characteristics; deployment experiences, including perceptions of rewarding and unrewarding aspects of service; and information on current health, were collected with questionnaires. Associations between deployment and health factors, and participants' perceptions of service were examined.

Results: The rewarding aspects of deployment were related to military tasks such as "doing the job you were trained to do", "teamwork/comradeship" and altruistic aspects such as "helping local people". The unrewarding aspects were "being separated from family and friends" and "quality of supply and equipment". Although there was general agreement on the aspects that mattered to most Service personnel, there were differences associated with operation deployed to, enlistment type, rank, service and psychological health. Those with a psychological problem were more likely to find most military aspects of deployment unrewarding but were more likely to find helping the local population and working with other coalition forces rewarding.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates how the perceptions of deployment, in terms of rewarding and unrewarding aspects, are shaped by service characteristics, mental health and operation deployed to.