BACKGROUND: Soldiers face extraordinary circumstances while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Soldiers are required at times to live away from family and friends for extended periods of time and work in hazardous environments. Once soldiers become veterans, the experiences of military life may continue to affect them long after their duties have been carried out. These conditions put them at greater risk for alcohol misuse and depression. The purpose of this is to determine whether there is an association between alcohol misuse and depression symptomology among males who have a history of service in the U.S. Armed Forces. METHODS: Secondary data from NHANES 2005-2008 were used to analyze 1,381 men who expressed alcohol misuse and depressive symptomology. Chi-square tests were used to attain descriptive frequencies for alcohol misuse and depressive symptomology and demographic factors. Binary logistic regression was used for univariate and multivariate to test for associations between alcohol misuse, depressive symptomology, and demographic variables. RESULTS: Alcohol misuse and depressive symptomology were significantly associated with male veterans with a history of service in the Armed Forces, p= .041. Age (p< .001), race (p< .05) marital status (p<.05), and educational attainment (p< .01) are the best predictors of alcohol misuse among male veterans. Similarly, depressive symptomology had the same predictors as alcohol misuse, except race. CONCLUSIONS: The complex relationship between alcohol misuse and depressive symptomology among male veterans warrants further research. Public health professionals need to clearly establish standard measurement instruments for diagnosing these conditions. Once established, appropriate interventions can be implemented in order to combat these alcohol misuse and depressive symptomology among male veterans. INDEX WORDS: alcohol misuse, depressive symptomology, military, veterans

Living as a white Zimbabwean in the 1990s meant a near-perfect life: your clothes were always clean and ironed, there was always tea in the silver teapot, gins and tonics were served on the verandah, and, in theory at least, black and white lived in harmony. As Mugabe’s presidency turned sour, however, this idyllic and privileged world began to crumble into anarchy. My family and I left to escape the political violence in 2002, and moved to New Zealand. My novel Ngozi draws on these experiences to tell the story of one troubled white family who struggle to stay afloat in the collapsing economy and escalating horror of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. The story is told through the eyes of a young white girl, who is partly based on myself. When the farm invasions begin, the violence threatens to destroy the family’s way of life forever. They eventually leave Zimbabwe, but escaping the vengeful ghosts (‘ngozi’) of their past still seems impossible.

The link between mental health and income of military personnel remains relatively understudied in Canada. This research sought to determine whether household income is associated with poor mental health in terms of suicide ideation, suicide attempts, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and mood and anxiety disorders in various military samples. First, associations of household income and several DSM-IV diagnosed mental disorders were examined in active military personnel and the Canadian general population using the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2 (CCHS-1.2; a representative sample of Canadians ages 16-64, n=28,688) and corresponding Canadian Forces Supplement (CCHS-CFS; a representative sample of active duty personnel ages 16-64, n=8,441). Second, associations of household income with categories of mental health conditions were examined in Canadian veterans using the Survey on Transition to Civilian Life (STCL; a representative survey of 3,154 former regular force personnel released from the military between 1998 to 2007, ages 15-67). Multiple logistic regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic variables, were used to determine associations between household income and mental health conditions in the three populations. Military characteristics (such as rank, branch, years of service, and previous deployment) were examined for potential influence on the household income-mental health relationship in the military and veteran samples. The primary hypothesis for this study was that lower income would be concomitant with poorer mental health in all three populations. This hypothesis was confirmed in the Canadian veteran population and general population. With respect to active service members, the results were less definitive; although trends in the data suggest that household income is associated with mental disorders, statistical tests were non-significant. The results of this study have important implications for future policy formulation and program development for military and veteran personnel; for active personnel, more thorough mental health screening procedures and prevention strategies focused on those in lower income brackets may have significant health and economic implications. For veteran personnel, the incorporation of knowledge and understanding of the impact of income on mental health into transition to civilian life policies and support programs may provide similar benefits.

This thesis reviews the scientific, litigatory, policy parameters of the Agent Orange controversy. Agent Orange, an herbicide used by the United States during the Viet Nam War, is the subject of continuing conflict involving its possible deleterious effects on veterans who may have been exposed to the herbicide. Central to this controversy are various legal issues. Many of these issues are a result of the governmental philosophy that defines government’s role vis-a-vis citizens, its employees, and the private enterprise sector.This study critically reviews the areas which are of major influence in this subject area and makes a proposal for action involving the legal issue of the burden of proof.

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that help and hinder the relationship between Canadian Forces (CF) veterans and their partners, from the perspective of the partners. Six wives and one girlfriend of former CF members were interviewed using Flanagan’s (1954) qualitative critical incident technique. Interviews yielded 17 helping incidents and 24 hindering incidents. Categories were created to comprehensively cluster the incidents. The helping categories were: supportive behaviours, collaboration, reconnecting, positive time apart, and compromising. The hindering categories were: communication difficulties, aggressive and intimidating behaviour, burdened with responsibility, inconsiderate behaviour, failure to provide support, and feeling ashamed of partner. Few links were found with regard to military employment; instead, the categories are consistent with past research exploring important relationship factors. Implications for counselling are provided, and future directions discussed.

Several organizations, most prominently the United Nations and the World Bank, have emphasized that ex-combatant reintegration is crucial to consolidating peace after war. Strategic thinking about peace-building and opportunities for international involvement in post-conflict states after the Cold War have focused attention on programs to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate fighters. Despite the resources and effort invested in reintegration programs, however, the evidence from Namibia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone shows that significant problems linked to incomplete reintegration persist after formal programs end. These problems include widespread unemployment among former fighters, ex-combatant involvement in criminality, re-recruitment into neighboring conflicts, and political and social polarization of reintegration grievances. Left unmanaged, such problems threaten security even if they do not lead a state back to war. The thesis explains the persistence of reintegration problems in terms of two variables: the capacity (defined as resources, operational expertise, and authority) and preferences (defined as the explicit and implicit interests and assumptions that guide programs) of reintegration actors. The capacity and preferences of these actors are aggregate independent variables that are themselves the product of endogenous (organizational and bureaucratic) and exogenous (systemic) pressures that literature on political economy and international relations theory helps to elucidate (i.e., helps to determine how reintegration actors' own behavior exacerbates or ameliorates problems). Drawing on documentation and interviews, the thesis constructs a narrative of reintegration in each case and employs process tracing within cases to identify reintegration problems, measure their impact on security, and determine whether and how the capacity and preferences of reintegration actors contributed to the persistence of reintegration problems. The thesis uses comparative analysis to generalize inferences about the variables observed, and suggests potential solutions to improve the management of reintegration problems and creation of economic opportunities. Unless deeper issues of reintegration governance related to problem management and opportunity creation are addressed, targeted remedies to improve program design will not succeed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-151)

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-151) and index.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the United States and globally, and impacts many aspects of health. To understand the contribution of body weight to chronic diseases such as diabetes, it is necessary to characterize secular and longitudinal weight trends prior to evaluating the weight effects that may result from medical interventions. The cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicates that mean body weight in the adult population increased from 152 lb (69 kg) to 181 lb (82 kg) between 1959 and 2008. However, there are no previously published studies on secular or longitudinal weight trends in a veteran population. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to describe secular and longitudinal trends in body weight for a large population of male and female individuals with and without diabetes in the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare system, the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States. METHODS: Retrospective observational analysis of data from VA facilities throughout the United States, in patients who had at least 4 outpatient visits within any consecutive 4-year interval during 2000–2014. The dataset included men and women with and without type 2 diabetes. The primary outcomes were longitudinal trends in body weight stratified by birth cohort, sex, and diabetes status. RESULTS: A total of 4,680,735 unique patients, 1,666,346 with diabetes, were included in the analysis. Regressions were performed on the patient-level data and segmented by birth cohort. A total of 176,034,543 weight observations were included in the analysis, with a median of 15 to 36 weight observations per patient in individuals without diabetes, and a median of 22 to 49 weight observations in individuals with diabetes across birth cohorts. In the year 2000, the y-intercept for the regression equations indicated a mean body weight for men without diabetes of 188 lb (85 kg), for women without diabetes of 166 lb (75 kg), for men with diabetes of 213 lb (97 kg), and for women with diabetes of 195 lb (88 kg). Secular trends in body weight during the study period had median linear increases of 0.53 lb/y (0.24 kg/y) in men with diabetes, 0.50 lb/y (0.23 kg/y) in women with diabetes, 0.53 lb/y (0.24 kg/y) in men without diabetes, and 0.86 lb/y (0.39 kg/y) among women without diabetes, respectively. In cohorts born before 1940, body weight decreased. In the cohorts born between 1940-1949, body weight was stable. In all cohorts born after 1950, body weight increased. Across birth cohorts, the rate of weight increase accelerated from older to younger groups, with higher rates in the groups with diabetes than in the groups without diabetes: β2 = 0.0260 lb2/y (0.01179 kg2/y) in men without diabetes, 0.0398 lb2/y (0.01805 kg2/y) in men with diabetes, 0.0127 lb2/y (0.00576 kg2/y) in women without diabetes, and 0.0895 lb2/y (0.04060 kg2/y) in women with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of secular and longitudinal weight trends in a large, contemporary veteran population that includes both men and women. Consistent with findings from the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study of male veterans from the northeastern United States, weight changes varied from decreases among the oldest birth cohorts to increases in the youngest birth cohorts. Secular changes in body weight by birth cohort were consistent with the patterns reported in the Global Burden of Disease Study. The rate of weight change is accelerated in all younger birth cohorts relative to all older birth cohorts, with the highest rates in women with diabetes. Further analyses of this dataset are recommended to elucidate clinical characteristics associated with longitudinal weight change among individuals with and without diabetes in the veteran population.