Forecasting the Future Female Veteran Population and Their Increased Use of the VA Medical System - VPT2

Data-Driven Decision Making - C207
August 12th, 2015

Forecasting the Future Female Veteran Population and Their Increased Use of the VA Medical System

The use of the Veterans Affairs medical care system has significantly increased over the last decade due to two recent wars and an aging Vietnam Veteran population. As females have been accepted in all roles into the military, their population within the military has progressively multiplied over the last three decades. Since females in general typically use healthcare at a higher rate than their male counterparts, it is necessary to ascertain if the female veteran population and their usage of the VA is trending in the direction of growth. Should the numbers be trending in a manner that shows significant growth, a further in-depth study would be indicated to determine future growth beyond the course of this analysis could provide. This trending information as well as future studies, should they be indicated, would assist VA management in determining future monetary and staffing budgets.
Data Collection To evaluate the potential for growth within the female veteran population, data was collected online from: Veterans Affairs (VA) detailing veteran population statistics by state, age group, and gender; a Women’s Health Veteran’s Affairs Publication detailing the socio-demographic, utilization, and Costs of Care of female veterans; and data was also collected that included the numbers of the current military community demographic compiled by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. These data groups will be used together to analyze the current female veteran population and their use of the VA Health System by age group while also using current female military demographics to