Va Plans Massive Death Study

[Berta]

This study will sure be enlightening. I wonder who is paying for it.

Courtesy Colonel Dan the www.nextgov.com link he gave doesnt work or me.....maybe he has better access to the Nextgov site...

"February 1,
2013

The Veterans A ffairs Department has kicked off
a massive study in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the Defense Department to determine the cause of veterans’ deaths
since 1979, an effort that requires matching records of 34 million service
personnel with death certificates.

Aaron Schneiderman, acting director of VA’s
epidemiology program, said the National Mortality Study will first focus on
roughly 1 million veterans who served on active duty during the Afghanistan and
Iraq wars from 2001 through 2010, which among other things will help the VA
determine the scope of veteran suicides on a national basis. These matches only
will include personal information such as name, date of birth and Social
Security number; they will not include Defense health records.

A veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes,
according to recent estimates from the VA . Suicides by active duty military
personnel in 2012 hit 349, more than the 295 Americans who died in combat in
Afghanistan.

CDC’s Division of Vital Statistics at the
National Center for Health Statistics will match records provided by Defense
with death certificate information from all 50 states contained in the National Death
Index, said NDI director Lillian Ingster. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/ndi/about_ndi.htm

The NDI is a computerized index of death record
information on file in state vital statistics offices and is used by
epidemiologists and other health and medical investigators to help determine
causes of death. Ingster said the 34 million records include everyone who has
served in the military since 1979 -- w hen the NDI went into operation. The
study will involve the largest matching exercise in which she has ever
engaged.

“This is enormous,” Ingster said. Her division
has been grinding through the data since the end of 2012, with completion of the
34 million matches expected in a matter of months. She said the veteran matching
process encountered a few hiccups as the NDI was switched from a mainframe to a
server-based environment.

Schneiderman said death certificates include
standardized sources of information on causes of deaths, including drug
overdoses and chronic diseases. Once the matches are completed, the results will
help VA determine “how to care for veterans.”

Schneiderman said once VA receives the data
match file from CDC its first task will be to conduct a mortality study of
Afghanistan a nd Iraq veterans that will include an evaluation of traumatic
injury deaths (suicides and car crashes) and poisonings (drug overdose).

He added that the study also will help VA
determine if there are factors that result in a higher number of veteran deaths
than in the general population. VA can then use information to “drive down”
particular causes of death, he said.

Ingster agreed, and said the medical research
community and VA can use the study to improve care.

Dr. Remington Nevin, a former Army
epidemiologist who left the service this fall to pursue a degree in public
health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said
Defense and VA have made a good start in developing a national veteran mortality
database, but cautioned that death certificates prepared by local coroners ̶
0;can be pretty sloppy and there is no quality control.”

Nevin said VA could get better insight into
veteran suicides if it also tapped into the CDC’s National Violent Death
Reporting System, which covers only 18 states. Ingster said CDC is not using
this system for the VA national mortality study.

If all 50 states signed on to the National
Violent Death Reporting System it would be a valuable resource to help VA
pinpoint veteran suicides, Nevin said."

By Bob
Brewin

February 1,
2013

(This will be an eye opener for sure)

Edited February 7, 2013 by Berta

[john999]

I think they are just concerned with suicides of OIF/OEF vets. If all RVN vets died the VA would have a party.

[Berta]

And some of those RVN vets are within this timeframe :

"the cause of veterans’ deaths

since 1979, an effort that requires matching records of 34 million service

personnel with death certificates."

That involves most of us survivors here as far as their vet spouses deaths.........occuring after 1979. Wonder why they picked that specific date?????

The war was over in 1975. Maybe they found out Doctor Eliot was Right.

[john999]

2/3 of Vietnam vets are dead, so this to me is a high rate 40 some odd years after the end of the war.

I wonder how this compares with cohort of males age 60-68 who did not serve during Vietnam? We know that socioeconomic factors were at play because if you have money to go to college you could get out of serving during the worst years of the war.

[Teac]

Frankly , I think it is a massive waste of money that could be put to benefit the living veterans and their families. Just think how many more raters could be hired to clear up the backlog with these funds... I guess there are not enough government jobs for this administration now they have to create more....

[Pete53]

Another study that the VA already knows the answer too.

[meghp0405]

Berta, I think you know the answer to your own question. I believe that we as taxpayers will be footing the bill. I agree with Teac, this is a complete waste of money. Money that could be used in a more proficient manner in deleting this claim backlog that is hovering around and going no where....