ESP Report: An Evidence Map of the Women Veterans' Health Research Literature (2008 - 2015)

Wilt TJ, Danan ER, Ensrud KE, Krebs EE, Koeller EH, Greer NL, MacDonald R, Velasquez TL. ESP Report: An Evidence Map of the Women Veterans' Health Research Literature (2008 - 2015). 2016 Sep 16.

Women currently comprise approximately 10% of all living US Veterans. This proportion is projected to rise to 15% by 2035 as the number and proportion of women serving in the US Military continues to increase. The demographics and life experiences of women Veterans are distinct from those of both non-Veteran women and male Veterans. Consequently, women Veterans face multiple unique health and healthcare concerns that were historically underserved by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). In the past several decades, the provision of high- quality, evidence-based, accessible healthcare for women Veterans has become an increasingly vital strategic priority within VA. A growing body of literature addresses the health and healthcare concerns of women Veterans. The VA Women's Health Research Network, established in 2010, seeks to systematically improve women's healthcare and reduce sex/gender disparities by filling critical knowledge gaps in the evidence base related to women Veterans' health and healthcare needs. Previous reviews have identified the literature related to women Veterans' health published through 2008. We created an evidence map of the literature published from 2008 through 2015. Topic stakeholders were interested in a broad overview of the growth and depth of research on health and healthcare for women Veterans. We framed our evidence map around healthcare topics of interest according to key study characteristics in order to facilitate planning of future VA research, policy, and clinical activities in women Veterans' health. The population of interest was US women Veterans. We included all interventions, comparators, outcomes, and settings. Due to the breadth of research included, we did not extract, evaluate, or present study findings.