Sayer, Hagel, Noorbaloochi, Spoont, Rosenheck, Griffin and Murdoch (2014) engaged in astudy to determine the prevalence of PSTD among veterans seeking services from the Veteran Administration Center. According to the authors, more than 9% of Americans suffer from PSTD. The condition has become chronic particularly for individuals who do not seek medical intervention early. The Veteran Administration provides an array of services to the patients including medical care, pharmacy, employment, and rehabilitation. However, there has been an observed disparity between men and women. The prevalence of PSTD is higher in men than in women. The rationale for this is that women are more likely to seek services earlier before the symptoms become full blown (Sayer et al., 2014). The authors also indicate that women respond positively to the guidelines set by the VA more than their male counterparts.
The participants were drawn from registered cohorts that had sought services from the Veterans Administration office between 1998 and 2000 and 2004 to 2006 100,750 male, and 3,866 female were eligible to participate in the study. To instigate them to participate, the researchers used monetary incentives, repeat mailing and telephone prompts. Approximately 3,337 participants who had received services from the office responded positively(Sayer et al., 2014).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Chi-Square and T-tests were used to analyze the data. The researchers found out that women were less likely to obtain service connection regarding PSTD after havingtheirinitial claims denied(Sayer et al., 2014). Also, the clinical factors associated with women’s health predispose them to a better condition of receiving timely services than men, and this can be used to explain the discrepancy in the conduction’s prevalence between them and men. However, the chances of women returning to the VA after being denied service at the first request was lower in women than men. The authors presumed that the ability of the patients to express their problems determines whether they are recruited in the program or denied the services altogether. As a result, the study recommends the adoption of methodologiesthat can accurately determinethedisability requirements among the veterans rather than relying on their personal accounts (Sayer et al., 2014).
Sampling Methods used by the Authors
The primary method of data collection was objective. The researchers singled out the MinneapolisVeteranAdministrationCenter, andtheypresented the proposal to the Institutional Review Board for approval. They divided the prospectiveparticipants into two cohorts with the groups includingpatients who hadreceivedservicesbetween 1994 and 1998 and 1998 and 2000. The male participants made up of 95% of the target group (Sayer et al., 2014). Random sampling was, therefore, carried out to achieve gender equality in the survey.
The Study Variables
The gender difference was the independent variable in the research. The status disability as determined by the Veterans Office, as outline din the study was dependent on the gender of the individuals. Therefore, more women than men were likely to return to the VA facilities to seek for services after being turned away for the first time. From the research, 0nly 40% of the females presented their cases subsequently after being turned away(Sayer et al., 2014). The variablesraise serious questions regarding the appropriateness of the services rendered by the VA. Apart from relying on the narrativepresented by the patients, theinstitution should work development methodologies to assess the intensity of PSTD to avoid sidelining deserving veterans.
Problems with the Study regarding Statistics
The collection of data in the research is rather questionable. Although it was to settle for the Minneapolis VA Center objectively, the luring of patients to respond to the survey may have led to incorrect data. It is noteworthy that the researchersoffered monetary incentives and repeatedemails to the participants to entice them to respond to the questionnaires (Sayer et al., 2014). This indicates that the consent of the patients was not voluntary and their response was not objective to the goal of the survey. There is a possibility that a significant number of them did not understand the purpose of the study and how it would influence their lives and this may have instigated the researchers to devise mechanisms to obtain information. To a significant extent, this may have affected the credibility of the data.
Reasons for the Study
The authors convened a longitudinal observational study that focused on the gender differences in the disability status among the veterans. The inquiry was driven by the realization that there was an observablegender difference in disability status as determined by the VeteransAdministration. It also sought to determine if the disparitieshave been resolved and whether there are mechanisms in place to counter the inequality.
In conclusion, the results of the study demonstrate the need for a more sophisticated method of determining the disability needs of the veterans other than relying on the conventional personal narrative. The move would bridge the gap in access to services between men and women and scale down the number of cases that are turned down on the first visit. It would also encourage women from seeking services in higher numbers without the fear of having to re-submitting their requests.
References
Sayer, N. A., Hagel, E. M., Noorbaloochi, S., Spoont, M. R., Rosenheck, R. A., Griffin, J. M.,& Murdoch, M. (2014).Gender differences in VA disability status for PTSD over time. Psychiatric Services , 65 (5), 663-669.
