Barriers to veterans health administration care in a nationally representative sample of women veterans

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Women veterans are generally less healthy than their nonveteran female counterparts or male veterans. Accumulating evidence suggests there may be barriers to women veterans’ access to and use of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care. OBJECTIVE: To document perceived and/or actual barriers to care in a nationally representative sample of women veterans and examine associations with VHA use. DESIGN: Cross-sectional telephone survey. PARTICIPANTS: Women who are current and former users of VHA from VA’s National Registry of Women Veterans. MEASUREMENTS: Assessments of perceptions of VHA care, background characteristics, and health service use. RESULTS: Perceptions of VHA care were most positive regarding facility/physical environment characteristics and physician skill and sensitivity and least positive regarding the availability of needed services and logistics of receiving VHA care (M=0.05 and M=−0.10; M=−0.23 and M=−0.25, respectively). The most salient barrier to the use of VHA care was problems related to ease of use. Moreover, each of the barriers constructs contributed unique variance in VHA health care use above and beyond background characteristics known to differentiate current users from former VHA users (Odds ratio [OR]=4.03 for availability of services; OR=2.63 for physician sensitivity and skill: OR=2.70 for logistics of care; OR=2.30 for facility/physical environment). Few differences in barriers to care and their association with VHA health care use emerged for women with and without service-connected disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight several domains in which VHA decisionmakers can intervene to enhance the care available to women veterans and point to a number of areas for further investigation.