Results of a Multistep Approach to Setting Research Priorities to Improve Women Veterans' Health: Updated VA Women's Health Research Agenda.

Rodriguez A, Fenwick KM, Borsky AE, Frayne SM, Hamilton AB, Yano EM. Results of a Multistep Approach to Setting Research Priorities to Improve Women Veterans' Health: Updated VA Women's Health Research Agenda. Women's health issues : official publication of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. 2026 Jan 16 DOI: 10.1016/j.whi.2025.12.004.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• RCS 21-135 – Research Career Scientist Award
• RCS 05-195 – Research Career Scientist Award
• SDR 10-012 – Women's Health Research Consortium/Practice-Based Research Network

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Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Women veterans are the fastest-growing population of new users within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care delivery system. Building on the priorities established in the 2011 research agenda, and the research conducted in the intervening years, this paper describes the expert panel priority-setting process and reports on the national research priorities for women's health and health care research in VA. METHODS: We applied content analysis to documents from a conference brainstorming session and then facilitated an expert panel using a modified Delphi process to generate a ranked list of research priorities. Participants ranked each priority on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all impactful; 5 = extremely impactful) and we calculated average descriptive statistics across panelists for each item. RESULTS: We identified 14 research priorities spanning mental health (4 items), access/rural health (3 items), primary care/prevention (2 items), reproductive health (2 items), other research topics (2 items), and complex chronic conditions, aging, and long-term care (1 item). The pertinence of a life course approach emerged across several research priorities. CONCLUSION: Researchers, VA program leaders, other federal agency leaders, and women veterans collectively established updated VA women's health research priorities. The VA Office of Research and Development used the priorities to inform a women's health-focused notice of special interest setting funding priorities for women veterans' research, and the Women's Health Research Network will use them in strategic planning.