Watermeyer Tamlyn, Atkinson Elliott, Howatson Glyn, McGill Gill, Dodds Christina, Ansdell Paul, Udeh-Momoh Chinedu
Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom.
Edinburgh Dementia Prevention, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 22;20(1):e0306149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306149. eCollection 2025.
Recent studies have demonstrated a greater risk of dementia in female veterans compared to civilians; with the highest prevalence noted for former service women with a diagnosis of psychiatric (trauma, alcoholism, depression), and/or a physical health condition (brain injury, insomnia, diabetes). Such findings highlight the need for increased and early screening of medical and psychiatric conditions, and indeed dementia, in the female veteran population. Further, they call for a better understanding of the underlying biopsychosocial mechanisms that might confer heightened risk for female veterans, to tailor preventative and interventional strategies that support brain health across the lifespan.
The Female Brain and Endocrinological Research-Veteran (FemBER-Vet) Study will create a highly-phenotyped readiness cohort of ex-service persons as well as non-veterans to assess the impacts of, and risks associated with, military service on brain health, using state-of-the-art non-invasive cognitive, physiological and biomarker capture techniques. FEMBER-Vet will include 90 participants across three study groups (30 female veterans, 30 male veterans, 30 female civilians) to delineate the precise biological, socio-demographic, health, lifestyle, military-related, and life-course determinants of brain health outcomes (psychosocial, cognitive, neurophysiological, and other biomarkers).
This work addresses the poorly understood biopsychosocial outcomes that female veterans experience compared to their male counterparts and the general female population. Ultimately, it will provide evidence to support the development of tailored interventions for an emerging health priority that currently lacks sufficient evidence for screening and therapeutic intervention.
最近的研究表明，与平民相比，女性退伍军人患痴呆症的风险更高；被诊断患有精神疾病（创伤、酗酒、抑郁症）和/或身体健康问题（脑损伤、失眠、糖尿病）的退伍女性患病率最高。这些发现凸显了在女性退伍军人中加强和早期筛查医疗和精神疾病以及痴呆症的必要性。此外，这也要求更好地理解可能使女性退伍军人面临更高风险的潜在生物心理社会机制，以便制定支持终身脑健康的预防和干预策略。
女性大脑与内分泌研究 - 退伍军人（FemBER - Vet）研究将创建一个具有高度特征的退伍军人及非退伍军人准备队列，使用最先进的非侵入性认知、生理和生物标志物捕获技术，评估军事服役对脑健康的影响及相关风险。FEMBER - Vet将包括三个研究组的90名参与者（30名女性退伍军人、30名男性退伍军人、30名女性平民），以确定脑健康结果（心理社会、认知、神经生理和其他生物标志物）的确切生物学、社会人口统计学、健康、生活方式、军事相关和生命历程决定因素。
这项工作解决了与男性退伍军人和一般女性人群相比，女性退伍军人所经历的鲜为人知的生物心理社会结果。最终，它将为制定针对一个新兴健康优先事项的量身定制干预措施提供证据，而目前该事项缺乏足够的筛查和治疗干预证据。
