Centers for American Indian and Alaskan Native Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045, USA.
J Rural Health. 2013 Jun;29(3):304-10. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-0361.2012.00450.x. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) signed a Memo of Understanding in 2010 to strengthen their partnership in improving health care services for Native veterans, who are disproportionately rural. This paper describes the demographic and service use profile of rural Native veterans who access VA health care.
Data were abstracted from the 2008 Veteran Health Administration (VHA) medical dataset, and the characteristics of rural Native veterans were compared to rural non-Native veterans.
Rural Native veterans were more rural (41% vs 35%) and more highly rural (8% vs 2%) compared to non-Native veterans. Rural Native veterans were younger, more likely to be female, and earned about the same median income compared to rural non-Native veterans. Although rural Native veterans had fewer diagnoses on average, they were more likely to have served in combat areas and to have higher levels of service-connected disability compared to other rural veterans.
Demographic and service-related characteristics of rural Native veterans who accessed VA care differ from those of rural non-Native veterans. Identifying specific health care and service use characteristics will assist in the development of appropriate policy and programs to serve rural Native veterans.
退伍军人事务部（VA）和印第安人健康服务部（IHS）于 2010 年签署了一份谅解备忘录，以加强他们在改善农村土著退伍军人医疗服务方面的伙伴关系，这些退伍军人不成比例地居住在农村地区。本文描述了接受 VA 医疗保健的农村土著退伍军人的人口统计和服务使用情况。
数据从 2008 年退伍军人医疗管理局（VHA）医疗数据集提取，农村土著退伍军人的特征与农村非土著退伍军人进行了比较。
与非土著退伍军人相比，农村土著退伍军人的农村比例更高（41%对 35%），更高度农村化（8%对 2%）。农村土著退伍军人更年轻，女性比例更高，收入中位数与农村非土著退伍军人相当。尽管农村土著退伍军人的平均诊断数量较少，但与其他农村退伍军人相比，他们更有可能在战斗地区服役，并有更高水平的与服务相关的残疾。
接受 VA 护理的农村土著退伍军人的人口统计和服务相关特征与农村非土著退伍军人不同。确定特定的医疗保健和服务使用特征将有助于制定适当的政策和计划，为农村土著退伍军人提供服务。
