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Taylor BC, Campbell E, Nugent S, Cutting A, Bidelspach DE, Carlson KF, Sayer NA. Fiscal Year 2012 VA Utilization Report for Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Diagnosed with TBI. 2014 Feb 1; 2(1).
This report was conducted by the VA Polytrauma and Blast Related Injuries (PT/BRI) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) to describe the prevalence, comorbidities, health service utilization and associated costs among Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) during fiscal year (FY) 2012. The study population consisted of all Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans who used inpatient or outpatient care in VHA in FY 2012. In 2012, 6.8% of the Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans who used VA health care carried a diagnosis of TBI. However, 9.8% of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans who were seen over a three year period from FY 2010 to FY 2012 carried a diagnosis of TBI. The vast majority of patients with a TBI diagnosis also had a clinician-diagnosed mental health disorder and half of those with clinician diagnosed TBI had both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain diagnoses. VA health care utilization and associated costs were higher in Veterans with a diagnosis of TBI compared to those without a TBI diagnosis. A substantial portion of this higher utilization was due to mental health, rehabilitation, and polytrauma health care utilization. While the overall number of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans using VA health care services continues to increase each year, the patterns and prevalence of diagnoses as well as the utilization of services have remained similar over time. http://www.queri.research.va.gov/ptbri/docs/FY12-TBI-Diagnosis-HCU-Report.pdf
