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. 2015 Jun 19;15:128. doi: 10.1186/s12888-015-0517-7

Table 2.

Prevalence of health and military outcomes by marital statusa

Recently divorced Stayed married Total
N = 1545 N = 27,769 N = 29,314
Outcomeb n (%) n (%) n (%)
Mental health
 New-onset posttraumatic stress disorderb 74 4.79 597 2.15 671 2.29
 New-onset depressionc 47 3.04 431 1.55 478 1.63
 Anxiety/Panicc 47 3.04 476 1.72 523 1.78
Behavioral
 Smoking initiation 15 0.97 125 0.45 140 0.48
 Smoking recidivism 53 3.43 685 2.47 738 2.52
 New-onset alcohol-related problemsc 62 4.01 727 2.62 789 2.69
 New-onset binge drinkingd 183 11.84 2846 10.25 3029 10.33
Physical health
 New-onset hypertension 84 5.44 1646 5.93 1730 5.90
 New-onset diabetes 8 0.52 205 0.74 213 0.73
 Weight changee
Extreme weight loss 46 2.98 572 2.06 618 2.11
 Moderate weight loss 169 10.94 3013 10.85 3182 10.85
 Stable weight 572 37.02 12490 44.98 13062 44.56
 Moderate weight gain 522 33.79 7949 28.63 8471 28.90
 Extreme weight gain 120 7.77 1634 5.88 1754 5.98
Functional health
 Mental component summary scoref
  Lowest 15th percentile 242 15.66 2761 9.94 3003 10.24
  Middle 70th percentile 1061 68.67 19563 70.45 20624 70.36
  Highest 15th percentile 221 14.30 4999 18.00 5220 17.81
 Physical component summary scoref
  Lowest 15th percentile 211 13.66 3633 13.08 3884 13.11
  Middle 70th percentile 1031 66.73 19928 71.76 20959 71.50
  Highest 15th percentile 282 18.25 3762 13.55 4044 13.80
Military related outcomes
 Deploymentg 541 38.26 8693 31.30 9234 31.64
 Military separationh 205 13.27 3929 14.15 4134 14.10

a Marital status assessed from baseline to first follow-up, where those who were “recently divorced” were married at their baseline survey and got divorced before their follow-up survey, those who “stayed married” were married throughout the study period. The reference category is “stayed married”

b All outcomes were significantly associated with exposure at p < 0.05, except for new-onset diabetes (p = 0.08) and military separation (p = 0.33)

c Posttraumatic stress disorder is defined using the PTSD checklist-civilian version, specific criteria with a cutoff of 50

d Assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire

e Binge drinking is defined as reporting 5 or more drinks per occasion for men or 4 or more drinks per occasion for women on at least 1 day during the past year

f Extreme weight loss (≥10 % loss), moderate weight loss (between 3 % and 10 % loss), stable weight (within ± 3 %), moderate weight gain (between 3 % and 10 % gain), and extreme weight gain (≥10 % gain)

g Mental component summary score and physical component summary score are obtained from the short form 36 question health survey for veterans (SF-36 V)

h Deployment was assessed from baseline until the follow-up for those in the “stayed married” and in the 3 years following divorce for the “recently divorced” group

i Separation was assessed after the date of the completion of the follow-up survey