United States Veteran Perceptions of the Veterans Health Administration Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders Annual Evaluation.

Sippel JL, Stroupe KT, Escudero G, Huo Z, Kale IO, Etingen B, Evans CT, Wickremasinghe IM, Bennett B, Smith BM. United States Veteran Perceptions of the Veterans Health Administration Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders Annual Evaluation. The journal of spinal cord medicine. 2025 Jun 30; 1-13, DOI: 10.1080/10790268.2025.2517928.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• RCS 20-192 – Research Career Scientist Award

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Abstract:

CONTEXT: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) offers Annual Evaluations (AEs) to Veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D) for preventive services, managing common complications, psychosocial services, and addressing equipment needs. OBJECTIVE: Obtain Veteran perceptions of AE services and examine their association with Veteran characteristics and receipt of AEs. METHODS: Surveys were sent to ? = 8,421 Veterans in the VHA SCI/D Registry electronically (? = 8,121) or through US mail (? = 300), with a 23.64% response rate. After excluding participants with missing data, ? = 1,687 Veterans were included in descriptive and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Respondents were aged 60.7 years (SD = 11.60) on average; most were male (91.2%), white (75.9%), and non-Hispanic (90.5%). 72.4% indicated receiving their most recent SCI/D AE about one year ago, 24.8% more than one year ago, and 3.4% had never had an AE. The most frequently reported reasons for not receiving an AE were COVID-19 related concerns (46.1%), and that AE was not offered (23.4%). Most (73.7%) indicated the AE was "Very Important" for their health and well-being. Veterans living more than 120 min from their VA had lower odds (0.51, 95% CI 0.32-0.80) of reporting recent AEs compared to Veterans who lived within 30 min. CONCLUSIONS: Veterans expressed high levels of satisfaction with the AE and found many aspects to be valuable. Additional strategies are needed to address travel barriers and COVID-19 related access challenges to bolster AE receipt. Future research and efforts to leverage technology for reminders may improve AE uptake.