More than 200,000 individuals leave the U.S. military service every year and understanding their transition to civilian life is an important public health issue. This study is the first to examine how the health and broader well-being of the U.S. veteran population changes in the first several years after they leave military service.
In a large national study of veterans who left service in 2016 researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the VA Boston Healthcare System found that the proportion of U.S. veterans reporting good health and broader well-being decreased rather than increased during the following three years.