Excess mortality associated with mental illness and substance use disorders among veteran clinic users with spinal cord injury.

Purpose: Among veterans with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) or disease aetiologies, examine the association between diagnosed mental illness (MI) and substance use disorders (SUD) on mortality after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors, SCI severity, injury duration and chronic physical illnesses.

Method: Longitudinal analysis of Veteran Health Administration(VHA) administrative data and Medicare claims for FY 1999-2004 matched with Spinal Cord Dysfunction-Registry (SCD-R) of VHA clinic users (N = 8334) with SCI. SCI was identified through SCD-R; individual MIs (anxiety, bipolar, depressive disorders, psychoses, post-traumatic disorder and schizophrenia) and SUDs (tobacco, alcohol and/or drug) were identified through ICD-9-CM codes.

Mental illness and substance use disorders among women veterans with diabetes.

Objectives: We sought to estimate the prevalence of mental illness (MI) and substance use disorders (SUD) and determine the predictors of MI/SUD categories among veteran women with diabetes.

Methods: We evaluated a cross-sectional analysis of 16,368 women veterans with diabetes in fiscal 1999 and 2000. SUD, MI, and diabetes were identified using validated algorithms based on diagnosis codes.

Co-occurring medical and mental illness and substance use disorders among veteran clinic users with spinal cord injury patients with complexities.

Study Design: Longitudinal analysis of SCI registry merged with VHA administrative-data and Medicare claims files (FY1999-2002).

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of mental illness (MI) and substance use disorders (SUDs) among veteran health administration (VHA) clinic users with spinal cord injuries (SCI) and examine subgroup variations by demographic, socioeconomic characteristics, and duration and level of SCI.

Setting: VHA clinic users (N=8338) with SCI who were alive by the end of FY2002.

Chronic illness with complexities: mental illness and substance use among Veteran clinic users with diabetes.

Objective: Create a taxonomy and examine the predictors of the often co-occurring conditions of substance use disorders and mental illness in veterans with diabetes.

Design: Merged Veteran Health Administration and Medicare fee-for-service claims data (N = 485,893).

Results: Thirty-one percent of patients with diabetes were diagnosed with either mental illness or substance use and had higher rates of diabetes-related complications.

Seasonal patterns in monthly hemoglobin A1c values.

The purpose of this study was to investigate seasonal variations in population monthly hemoglobin A(1c) (A1c) values over 2 years (from October 1998 to September 2000) among US diabetic veterans. The study cohort included 285,705 veterans with 856,181 A1c tests. The authors calculated the monthly average A1c values for the overall population and for subpopulations defined by age, sex, race, insulin use, and climate regions.