PREVENTION SERVICES RECEIVED BY VETERANS VISITING VHA FACILITIES

Objectives. This paper presents rates with which veterans report recei ving 13 recommended health promotion and disease prevention services. Results were compared with the U.S. Healthy People 2000 goals. Methods . Random samples of 300 men and 150 women visiting primary care clinic s in six Veterans Health Affairs facilities were drawn. A 66% adjusted response rate was achieved after two mailings (n = 1,703). Weighted a verages for each prevention service were calculated. Results. For prev entive services targeted to all age groups, both male and female veter ans currently exceed the Year 2000 goal in hypertension detection and tobacco counseling. Female veterans also exceed the Year 2000 goal in ''almost always'' using seat belts. For prevention services targeted t o specific age-gender subgroups, both male and female veterans current ly exceed the Year 2000 goals for four of the six primary and secondar y prevention services. Conclusions. Both male and female veterans exce ed Year 2000 goals for the receipt of nearly half of the preventive se rvices. Nevertheless, additional screening and counseling services sho uld be made available to veterans of all age categories. (C) 1998 Amer ican Health Foundation and Academic Press.