Predictors of Veterans Health Administration utilization and pain persistence among soldiers treated for postdeployment chronic pain in the Military Health System

Table 3 Adjusted time between military separation and VHA linkage among soldiers with chronic pain by treatment ^a

Treatment in MHS	Median time-to-linkage in days (95% CI)
Day supply opioids ^b
None	303 (292–315)
7-day supply	301 (290–312)
30-day supply	294 (284–305)
Day supply tramadol ^b
None	301 (290–313)
7-day supply	297 (286–308)
30-day supply	282 (272–293)
Receipt of NPT
No	331 (317–347)
Yes	295 (284–306)
Services for mental health issues
No	355 (339–373)
Yes	288 (278–299)
Services for substance use issues
No	301 (290–312)
Yes	308 (292–326)

‘Linkage to VHA’ was defined as enrolled and utilized VHA services after separating from the military. Events show the number of soldiers who linked
Abbreviations: VHA Veterans Health Administration, MHS Military Health System, NPT Nonpharmacological Treatment, CI Confidence Interval
^a Time to linkage is adjusted for covariates in the Cox proportional hazards model. Data shown are for male non-Hispanic white soldiers with chronic pain who were married, who enlisted, whose index deployment ended in FY08 and who separated from the military for reason of expiration of enlistment. Continuous covariates in the model were set to their median value and other covariates were set to their mean to reflect proportions
^b Expressed per year

ISSN: 1472-6963