Working with Military and Veterans
We are creating a BASEline assessment tool for eating disorder diagnosis in veteran and active servicemember populations.
CARE recently wrapped up all data collection for a major study funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) focused on better identifying U.S. veterans who may benefit from eating disorder and general mental health care. Military servicemembers and veterans are more likely to develop eating disorders, but until recently, healthcare screeners had not been developed with this unique population in mind.
In 2018, the DoD awarded CARE a grant to create and test a brief eating disorder screener in U.S. veterans. The first phase of this study resulted in the creation of the Brief Assessment of Stress and Eating (BASE). When tested in a non-veteran population, the BASE was able to better identify cisgender men with eating disorders than existing screeners.
Phase two, which was completed in February 2024, tested the BASE in a separate sample of U.S. veterans. Data analysis is ongoing, but the information we collected has been used to look deeper into the connections between eating behaviors, suicidality, substance use, and gender in veterans.
Funding For A New Study
The Department of Defense awarded CARE $4.23 million in 2023 for our newest large-scale study.
Active military servicemembers similarly face unique eating disorder risk factors and treatment barriers, which led CARE to launch a large-scale study testing the BASE in individuals who have recently entered the military. This project will span three years, allowing the team to understand connections between eating behaviors, risk factors, and need-for-treatment over time. Recruitment efforts for this study launched in the summer of 2024 and remain ongoing.
