# Quantifying the Burden of Disease and Healthcare Need in Veterans and Civilians

> **NIH VA I01** · VA GREATER LOS ANGELES HEALTHCARE SYSTEM · 2023 · —

## Abstract

Background: With rapid acceleration of Veterans’ use of care in the community, limited data exist to prepare
community providers and others in the broader VA integrated care network. Many community providers and
health plans may assume Veteran patients are similar to their routine practice populations, composed primarily
of civilians, although prior research would suggest otherwise.
Significance/Impact: The proposed study will use detailed, current, and comprehensive data from the
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National
Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), and VA Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) to quantify broadly the
distribution of health and healthcare factors for Veterans, VA users, and VA non-users and to evaluate in-depth
the factors that differ between Veterans and civilians. This information will not only substantially update our
knowledge of how Veterans are similar to or different from civilians but will also be used by VA policymakers to
improve the design and readiness of community care partners as VA referrals increase.
Innovation: In contrast to previous studies and reports using national survey data, the proposed project will
include VA data to provide a richer description of VA patients than is possible using only publicly-available data
on VA users, and examine in depth the patterns in Veterans’ health and healthcare across subgroups and over
time. The proposed research has no corollary or antecedent study in VA HSR&D’s or QUERI’s portfolio, and
of the studies funded outside the VA that use one or more of these sources and is underway or recently
completed, none proposed to use VA data or to combine the breadth and depth of the proposed project
Specific Aims: This project aims to 1. Quantify the distribution of population characteristics, health behaviors,
health conditions, health status, access to care, and healthcare utilization among Veterans overall and among
VA users and non-users; 2. Evaluate the extent to which patterns in population-, health-, and healthcare-
related factors differ between Veterans and civilians; 3. Determine whether the patterns identified under Aims 1
and 2 vary for subgroups defined by age, gender, and race-ethnicity; and, 4. Conduct an expert panel to review
results from Aims 1-3 to come to consensus on evidence-based recommendations for improved community
care (e.g., community provider readiness) and health equity.
Methodology: We will conduct a secondary analysis using multiple years of data from BRFSS, NHIS,
NSDUH, and VA CDW. Our analyses will include measures for Veteran and VA user status, geographic
region, population characteristics, health behaviors and conditions, and healthcare outcomes, such as access,
utilization, and unmet need for care. We will quantify the distribution of population-, health-, and healthcare-
related factors among Veterans, VA users, and VA non-users, evaluate how these factors differ between
Veterans...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10845255
- **Project number:** 5I01HX002611-03
- **Recipient organization:** VA GREATER LOS ANGELES HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine JoAnn Hoggatt
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-10-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10845255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10845255, Quantifying the Burden of Disease and Healthcare Need in Veterans and Civilians (5I01HX002611-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10845255. Licensed CC0.

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