Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Houston Fire Department, Houston, TX, USA.
Psychiatry Res. 2018 Sep;267:394-399. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.06.020. Epub 2018 Jun 28.
Firefighters who have previously served in the military may be at potentially higher risk for worsened mental health outcomes. This investigation examined the mental health of military veterans, as compared to non-veterans, in the fire service. We hypothesized that firefighters who endorsed military veteran status would have higher rates of mental health symptoms, in comparison to firefighters who did not endorse prior service in the military. Age, gender, and race/ethnicity were used as covariates. The sample was comprised of 910 career firefighters, 209 (23.0%) of whom endorsed military veteran status. One-way analyses of covariance were employed. The military veteran subsample reported significantly higher levels of sleep disturbance, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptom severity in comparison to the non-veteran subsample; however, effect sizes were small indicating that between group differences are actually negligible. Results highlight the need to improve our understanding of risk and resilience factors for firefighters who have served in the military, as this line of inquiry has potentially important mental health intervention implications for this exceptionally understudied population.
曾服过兵役的消防员可能面临心理健康恶化的潜在高风险。本研究调查了消防部门中退伍军人与非退伍军人的心理健康状况。我们假设，与没有服过兵役的消防员相比，退伍军人消防员的心理健康症状发生率更高。年龄、性别和种族/民族被用作协变量。样本由 910 名职业消防员组成，其中 209 名（23.0%）消防员表示自己有过服兵役的经历。采用单因素协方差分析。与非退伍军人组相比，退伍军人组报告的睡眠障碍、抑郁和创伤后应激症状严重程度明显更高；然而，效应量较小，表明组间差异实际上可以忽略不计。研究结果强调需要提高我们对曾在军队服役的消防员的风险和适应因素的理解，因为这一研究方向对这一研究不足的人群具有潜在的重要心理健康干预意义。
