Average Military Service Length and Soldiers’ General Health

Arsia Taghva; Masoud Azizi; Mohammad Hossein Rajabian; Mojgan Khademi; Abbas Omid; Vahid Donyavi; Seyed Mozaffar Rohani

doi:0.5812/jamm.20604

Journal of Archives in Military Medicine

JAMM International

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https://doi.org/0.5812/jamm.20604

Average Military Service Length and Soldiers’ General Health

Author(s):

Arsia Taghva¹,

Masoud Azizi^2,*,

Mohammad Hossein Rajabian³,

Mojgan Khademi⁴,

Abbas Omid³,

Vahid Donyavi¹,

Seyed Mozaffar Rohani³

1Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Disaster and Military Psychiatry Research Center, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

2Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, IR Iran

3Department of Psychiatry, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

4Department of Psychiatry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

Journal of Archives in Military Medicine:Vol. 2, issue 4; e93727

Published online:Oct 18, 2014

Article type:Research Article

Received:May 15, 2019

Accepted:Sep 16, 2014

How to Cite:Arsia TaghvaMasoud AziziMohammad Hossein RajabianMojgan KhademiAbbas OmidVahid DonyaviSeyed Mozaffar Rohaniet al.Average Military Service Length and Soldiers’ General Health.J Arch Mil Med.2(4):e93727.https://doi.org/0.5812/jamm.20604.

Abstract

Background: Military service constitutes a stressful phase of an individual’s life, which can have psychological consequences and affect both their mental and physical health. Different variables in this regard have been examined so far, but the role of average length of service has gone unnoticed to a great extent.

Objectives: As a result, the present study was an attempt to examine the effect of military service length on soldiers’ mental health assessed by the use of the four subscales present in the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ- 28).

Patients and Methods: Seven-hundred soldiers from three different randomly selected military bases in the North, Center, and South of Iran took part in the present study. Data were collected on the participants’ demographical information as well as their general health condition using GHQ-28.

Results: Nearly 11 percent of the participants were diagnosed as having psychological disorders. The average service length for those diagnosed with psychological disorders was found to be 14.36 months (SD = 2.93), while it was only 8.5 months (SD = 1.89) in the case of healthy soldiers. Depressive symptoms were the most common problem among soldiers, with anxiety and social dysfunction standing second and third, respectively. The difference between the two groups’ length of service was found statistically significant in the case of all the three constructs being examined (p _depression = 0.00, p _anxiety = 0.03, p _{social dysfunctioning} = 0.01).

Conclusions: Soldiers represent a major proportion of the male population in the society in Iran, and their health condition can indicate the society’s general health condition. However, it seems that as one’s length of service increases, the risk of suffering from psychological disorders is raised, which threatens the whole society’s psychological health conditions. The results of the present study imply that in order to have healthier individuals in the army and the society as a result, authorities need to take action.

Keywords

Military Service Length

References

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Search Relations

Author(s):

Arsia Taghva:[PubMed][Scholar]
Masoud Azizi:[PubMed][Scholar]
Mohammad Hossein Rajabian:[PubMed][Scholar]
Mojgan Khademi:[PubMed][Scholar]
Abbas Omid:[PubMed][Scholar]
Vahid Donyavi:[PubMed][Scholar]
Seyed Mozaffar Rohani:[PubMed][Scholar]