Understating Military Trauma: Investigating the Connection Between Military Service Experiences and PTSD Diagnoses Among Incarcerated Veterans
Disciplines
Mental and Social Health | Psychiatric and Mental Health
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event, such as war. Veterans who served in the war are at an increased risk of developing PTSD because of the severity of their experiences. These experiences may include witnessing or experiencing death, violence, and destruction. There are several effective treatments for PTSD; many veterans in prison do not have access to these treatments. PTSD can have a significant impact on the lives of veterans in prison, making it difficult to function and reintegrate into society. It is important to provide veterans in prison with access to mental health care so that they can receive treatment for PTSD and other mental health conditions. This study aims to explore the association between veterans serving in the armed forces and the probability of these individuals receiving a PTSD diagnosis and whether there are specific factors of military service that impact this relationship. This data was collected from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) sampling a total of 364 prisons were selected, involving 24,848 prisoners at both state and federal levels. The primary variables for this study are veteran status and PTSD diagnosis. The secondary variables include combat service, exposure to environmental hazards, type of discharge, and arrest for a violent offense. We cleaned the data, identified missing values, coded them accordingly, and utilized the codebook to find missing data. This study intends to analyze the data set to identify patterns and relationships related to PTSD diagnoses among veterans, predicting veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than non-veterans and that specific aspects of military service will further increase their risk.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CCSE - Data Science and Analytics
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Kevin Gittner
Understating Military Trauma: Investigating the Connection Between Military Service Experiences and PTSD Diagnoses Among Incarcerated Veterans
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event, such as war. Veterans who served in the war are at an increased risk of developing PTSD because of the severity of their experiences. These experiences may include witnessing or experiencing death, violence, and destruction. There are several effective treatments for PTSD; many veterans in prison do not have access to these treatments. PTSD can have a significant impact on the lives of veterans in prison, making it difficult to function and reintegrate into society. It is important to provide veterans in prison with access to mental health care so that they can receive treatment for PTSD and other mental health conditions. This study aims to explore the association between veterans serving in the armed forces and the probability of these individuals receiving a PTSD diagnosis and whether there are specific factors of military service that impact this relationship. This data was collected from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) sampling a total of 364 prisons were selected, involving 24,848 prisoners at both state and federal levels. The primary variables for this study are veteran status and PTSD diagnosis. The secondary variables include combat service, exposure to environmental hazards, type of discharge, and arrest for a violent offense. We cleaned the data, identified missing values, coded them accordingly, and utilized the codebook to find missing data. This study intends to analyze the data set to identify patterns and relationships related to PTSD diagnoses among veterans, predicting veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than non-veterans and that specific aspects of military service will further increase their risk.