Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1G1, Canada.
Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada.
Mil Med. 2024 May 18;189(5-6):1080-1088. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usad012.
Research on the health of older Veterans in Canada is an emerging area. Few population-based studies in Canada have included older Veterans as a specific group of interest. This paper describes a cohort of self-identified Veterans within the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).
Using data from the CLSA baseline assessment (2011-2015), we describe sociodemographic and health characteristics along with military-related variables in a cohort of Veterans in Canada. We also estimate the number of Canadian and non-Canadian Veterans living in Canada at the time of the CLSA baseline data collection.
We estimate that at the CLSA baseline, there were 718,893 (95% confidence interval [CI], 680,033-757,110) Canadian Veterans and 185,548 (95% CI, 165,713-205,100) non-Canadian Veterans aged 45-85 years living in Canada. Veterans were older and predominantly male compared to non-Veterans in the CLSA. Following age and sex adjustment, the distribution of sociodemographic and health characteristics was similar across all groups. The majority (> 85%) of participants in each comparison group reported self-rated general and mental health as excellent, very good, or good. Following age and sex adjustment, most characteristics across groups remained similar. One exception was mental health, where a greater proportion of Veterans screened positive for depression and anxiety relative to non-Veterans.
Using CLSA baseline data, we estimate the number of older Veterans in Canada and present descriptive data that highlight interesting differences and similarities between Veterans and non-Veterans living in Canada. Canadian and non-Canadian Veterans in the CLSA are presented separately, with the latter group having not been previously studied in Canada. This paper presents a snapshot of a cohort of self-identified Veterans within the CLSA at study baseline and highlights the potential of the CLSA as a vehicle for studying the aging Veteran population in Canada for years to come.
加拿大老年退伍军人健康研究是一个新兴领域。加拿大很少有基于人群的研究将老年退伍军人作为特定的研究群体。本文描述了加拿大老龄化纵向研究（CLSA）中自我认定的退伍军人队列。
利用 CLSA 基线评估（2011-2015 年）的数据，我们描述了加拿大退伍军人队列的社会人口统计学和健康特征以及与军事相关的变量。我们还估计了在 CLSA 基线数据收集时居住在加拿大的加拿大和非加拿大退伍军人的数量。
我们估计，在 CLSA 基线时，加拿大有 718893 名（95%置信区间[CI]，680033-757110）退伍军人和 185548 名（95%CI，165713-205100）非加拿大退伍军人年龄在 45-85 岁之间，居住在加拿大。与 CLSA 中的非退伍军人相比，退伍军人年龄较大，主要是男性。在年龄和性别调整后，所有组的社会人口统计学和健康特征分布相似。在每个比较组中，超过 85%的参与者报告自我评估的总体和心理健康状况为优秀、很好或良好。在年龄和性别调整后，大多数特征在组间仍然相似。一个例外是心理健康，其中退伍军人筛查出抑郁和焦虑的比例高于非退伍军人。
利用 CLSA 基线数据，我们估计了加拿大老年退伍军人的数量，并提供了描述性数据，突出了加拿大居住的退伍军人和非退伍军人之间的有趣差异和相似之处。CLSA 中的加拿大和非加拿大退伍军人分别呈现，后者在加拿大以前没有研究过。本文介绍了 CLSA 中自我认定的退伍军人队列在研究基线时的一个快照，并强调了 CLSA 作为未来多年研究加拿大老年退伍军人人口的工具的潜力。
