Addressing the Health Concerns of VA Women With Sexual Trauma

Summary

Lifetime sexual trauma (ST) (i.e., behaviors that range from unwanted sexual touching to attempted or completed rape) is a significant social and public health problem among women Veterans. For women Veterans, lifetime ST can occur prior to, during or after military service. ST is associated with multiple difficulties and risks, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intimate partner violence (IPV), and alcohol misuse. Providing an effective, integrated, and low-cost intervention that targets ST-related risks for women Veterans with lifetime ST would advance clinical care for these vulnerable women.

This research will develop and assess a computer-delivered intervention (Safety and Health Experiences Program; SHE) that will provide a screening and brief behavior intervention for women Veterans with any lifetime ST. More specifically, the intervention, SHE, will address interrelated health concerns for women Veterans with ST (i.e. alcohol misuse, IPV, and PTSD). SHE will be designed to provide individualized assessment, feedback, and referrals for women Veterans with any lifetime ST. SHE will take place within a primary care setting. Primary care visits are frequent points of health care contact for women Veterans making the visit itself the ideal, and possibly only, opportunity to provide behavioral interventions.

This study will lay the groundwork for a larger clinical trial of the SHE program in multiple VA primary care settings. If effective, the intervention, SHE, represents an innovative and low cost service for early identification and intervention that could be implemented nationwide with ease and speed to address the needs of women Veterans with lifetime ST. The long-term goal of the project is to make a significant impact on advancing health services research by introducing and testing a novel and potentially powerful service tool that may improve service delivery to address the co-occurring health concerns for women Veterans with any lifetime ST.

Conditions

• Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Intimate Partner Violence
• Alcohol-Related Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

SHE

SHE is a computer-delivered intervention (Safety and Health Experiences Program; SHE) that will provide a screening and brief behavior intervention for women Veterans with any lifetime ST. More specifically, the intervention, SHE, will address interrelated health concerns for women Veterans with ST (i.e. alcohol misuse, IPV, and PTSD). SHE will provide individualized assessment, feedback, and referrals for women Veterans with any lifetime ST. SHE will take place within a primary care setting.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brown University

  collaborator OTHER

• Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island

  collaborator OTHER

• VISN 17 Center of Excellence

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Caron Zlotnick, PhD · Brown University

• Suzannah Creech, PhD · VHA VISN 17 COE

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-06-12

Primary Completion

2019-08-30

Completion

2020-05-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations