Table 2.
Health-related characteristics of Gulf War Era Veteran Survey respondents vs. non-respondents as reported in the MVP Baseline Survey (n = 69,967).
| Characteristics | Respondents (n = 40,040) |
Non-Respondents (n = 29,827) |
SMD 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current health status (%) | 0.20 * | ||
| Good to excellent | 66.6 | 57.0 | |
| Fair to poor | 33.1 | 42.4 | |
| Missing | 0.3 | 0.6 | |
| Current physical fitness status (%) | 0.19 * | ||
| Very good to fairly good | 37.9 | 30.0 | |
| Satisfactory | 36.2 | 36.8 | |
| Fairly poor to very poor | 25.3 | 32.3 | |
| Missing | 0.6 | 0.9 | |
| Current exercise frequency (%) | 0.12 * | ||
| ≤1–3 times/month | 38.8 | 44.3 | |
| Once/week | 14.2 | 14.0 | |
| 2–4 times/week | 32.7 | 28.7 | |
| ≥5 times/week | 13.6 | 11.7 | |
| Missing | 0.8 | 1.3 | |
| Pain intensity, past week (%) | −0.19 * | ||
| No pain (0) | 9.8 | 8.2 | |
| Mild pain (1–3) | 36.1 | 28.7 | |
| Moderate pain (4–6) | 29.3 | 30.7 | |
| Severe pain (7–10) | 24.5 | 31.9 | |
| Missing | 0.3 | 0.5 | |
| VA health care use, past year (%) | 0.17 * | ||
| None | 11.8 | 8.6 | |
| Less than half of care | 29.1 | 24.6 | |
| More than half of care | 24.6 | 25.3 | |
| All care | 33.5 | 39.9 | |
| Missing | 1.1 | 1.7 | |
| VA inpatient hospital stays, past year (n) | 0.18 * | ||
| None | 78.8 | 72.7 | |
| 1–3 | 9.7 | 13.6 | |
| ≥4 | 1.8 | 3.3 | |
| Missing | 9.8 | 10.4 | |
| VR-12 score (mean, SD) | |||
| PCS | 36.7 ± 12.1 | 34.7 ± 12.3 | 0.16 * |
| MCS | 46.3 ± 13.3 | 42.5 ± 14.1 | 0.27 * |
| Smoker | 0.19 * | ||
| Never | 42.2 | 38.7 | |
| Former | 40.8 | 36.6 | |
| Current | 15.7 | 23.1 | |
| Missing | 1.3 | 1.6 | |
| Drinker (AUDIT-C) 2 | 0.05 * | ||
| Yes | 22.0 | 19.9 | |
| No | 75.9 | 76.7 | |
| Missing | 2.2 | 3.4 | |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index 3 | 0.04 * | ||
| Mean (SD) | 3 ± 2.1 | 3 ± 2.5 | |
| Median (Q1, Q3) | 3 (2, 4) | 2 (1, 4) | |
| Missing | 0.1 | 0.2 | |
| Number of Health Conditions 4 | 0.02 * | ||
| Mean (SD) | 7.1 ± 3.8 | 7.2 ± 4.1 | |
| Median (Q1, Q3) | 7 (4, 9) | 7 (4, 10) | |
| Missing | 12.4 | 12.9 |
Note: Table represents the subset of GW Veterans we mailed to who responded to the MVP Baseline Survey. Unless noted, all responses are from the Baseline Survey. 1 Standardized mean differences (SMD) exclude missing values. * = small effect size. 2 Drinker—based on the AUDIT-C: defined as a positive screen for a score of 4 or more for males and a score of 3 or more for females. 3 Charlson Comorbidity Index calculated from data in CDW. 4 Number of positive responses to 75 conditions listed on the MVP Baseline Survey.