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Frequent and prolonged deployments have been documented to adversely affect the mental health of military personnel (e.g., high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance abuse). We know less about how deployments affect military spouses. These researchers linked military records to the medical records of 250,626 wives of active-duty Army soldiers (years of service, >5), 69% of whom were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Wives of deployed soldiers had higher rates of any mental health diagnosis than wives of nondeployed soldiers (36.6% vs. 30.5%). The researchers developed risk ratios after controlling for wife's age and mental health history and husband's deployment frequency and service rank. Compared to women with n…