TABLE 1—

Military Information, Demographics, and Behavioral Health Diagnoses, Before or at Military Discharge, by Subsequent Homeless Status: US VA- or DoD-Enrolled Veterans Who Separated From the Military Between July 1, 2005, and September 30, 2006

Characteristic	Total (n = 310 685), %	Homelessa (n = 5574), %	Nonhomeless (n = 305 111), %
OEF–OIF deploymentb	55.1	65.0	54.9
Military pay gradec
E1–E4	44.1	72.4	43.5
E5–E9	43.4	25.5	43.7
O1–O3	5.2	1.1	5.3
O4–O10	6.0	0.7	6.1
Other	1.3	0.4	1.3
Service branch
Army	60.2	64.3	60.1
Navy	13.7	16.1	13.6
Air Force	13.8	7.0	13.9
Marines	11.4	11.7	11.4
Other	1.0	0.8	1.0
Character of service
Honorable or general	90.6	90.1	90.6
Other than honorable	0.5	3.3	0.5
Bad conduct or dishonorable	0.0	0.2	0.0
Uncharacterized or missing	8.9	6.4	8.9
Reserve or Guard (nonactive duty)	34.8	28.2	34.9
Age at separation, y
17–24	36.8	45.2	36.7
25–34	29.4	34.5	29.3
35–44	22.9	14.9	23.0
45–54	9.4	5.0	9.4
55–64	1.6	0.4	1.6
Male	84.8	84.6	84.8
Traumatic brain injuryd	1.0	3.0	1.0
Behavioral health disorders
Any behavioral health disordere	17.8	43.8	17.4
PTSD	2.4	9.3	2.3
Adjustment disorders	5.2	17.2	4.9
Anxiety disorders (excludes PTSD)	3.6	11.1	3.5
Mood disorders	5.9	20.0	5.6
Major depression	2.3	8.5	2.2
Personality disorders	1.6	7.5	1.5
Psychotic disorders	0.3	2.9	0.3
Substance use	3.3	17.7	3.1

Note. DoD = US Department of Defense; ICD-9-CM = International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification; OEF = Operation Enduring Freedom; OIF = Operation Iraqi Freedom; PTSD = posttraumatic stress disorder; VA = Department of Veterans Affairs. Because of the size of the data set, virtually all of the differences between the 2 subgroups were statistically significant (regardless of a substantive significance), and thus significance levels are not reported here.

^aHomelessness reflects either a record of a diagnosis indicator for lack of stable housing (ICD-9-CM¹⁸ code V60.0) or of receiving a VA homeless service. Percentage shown here reflects 5-year postdischarge incidence rates.

^bOIF and OEF signify deployment to conflict areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. Operation New Dawn, signifying participation in the latter period of the Iraqi conflict, commenced after the service period covered here.

^cMilitary pay is broken down into E grades for enlisted personnel (E1–E9) and into O grades (O1–O10) for officers.

^dDiagnosis criteria for traumatic brain injury are presented in detail in the Office of Inspector General report¹⁶ on the analytical database and are based on the presence of ICD-9-CM¹⁸ diagnoses of 310.2 (posttraumatic encephalopathy, postconcussion), 800.xx–804xx (skull fracture), 850.xx (concussion), 851.xx (cerebral laceration and contusion), 852.xx (subarachnoid, subdural, and extradural hemorrhage), 853.xx (other and unspecified intracranial hemorrhage following injury), 854.xx (intracranial injury of other and nonspecified injury), and 950.xx (injury to optic nerve and pathways).

^eAll diagnoses were made in the 1-year period before separation from the military. The behavioral health categories used here are based on groupings of ICD-9-CM diagnoses, following the conventions used in Hoge et al.¹⁹: any behavioral health disorder (290–319), adjustment disorders (309.0, 309.24, 309.28, 309.3, 309.4, 309.9), anxiety disorders (excluding PTSD; 300.01–300.03, 300.21, 300.22, 300.23, 300.29, 300.3, 308.3), PTSD (309.81), mood disorders (296.0, 296.2–296.7, 296.80, 296.89, 296.90, 300.4, 301.13, 311), major depression (296.2 and 296.3), personality disorders (301.0, 301.2, 301.4, 301.50, 301.6, 301.7, 301.81–301.84, 301.89, 301.9), psychotic disorders (295.1–295.4, 295.6, 295.7, 295.9, 297.1, 297.3, 298.8, 298.9), and substance use (291; 292, except 292.2; 303–305, except 305.1 and 305.8).