Military Service Identification Tool

NCT04299789 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: 278987
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 5,844
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Estimates of the UK's military veteran population, defined by the British Government as those who have served in the military for at least one day, is approximately 2.5 million, equivalent to around 5% of household residents aged 16 years or over in the UK. UK military veterans receive healthcare provision from the National Health Service (NHS), with care recorded in local, regional and national EHRs. EHRs - structured and unstructured (i.e. free text) - can be used to evaluate disease prevalence, surveillance, to perform epidemiological analyses and investigate quality of care and to improve clinical decision-making. There is no national marker in UK EHRs to identify veterans, nor is there a requirement for healthcare professionals to record it, making it difficult to evaluate the unique healthcare needs of those who have served in the UK Armed Forces. This study, funded by Forces in Mind Trust, seeks to validate the Military Service Identification Tool, an open-source computer program that searches through free-text clinical notes to make a prediction on a person's military status. It is in the public interest to know the health of our Armed Forces. The Tool has been validated using manually annotated datasets, but we now need to valid an individual's military status by contacting them via post or telephone and asking, "Have you ever served in the Armed Forces". The research team will work closely with the CRIS Patient Advisory Group and local healthcare professionals.

Conditions

Mental Health Disorder

Keywords

mental health; natural language processing

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Accuracy of the tool

  The primary outcome of this study is to provide descriptive statistics on the accuracy of the Military Service Identification Tool in correctly identifying those who have served in the Armed Forces.

  Analysis will be conducted within 6 months after data collection.

Study Arms (2)

Probable Civilian

This cohort represents those in which the Military Service Identification Tool has determined are a civilian and have not served in the Armed Forces.

Other: Validating the Military Service Identification Tool

Probable Veteran

This cohort represents those in which the Military Service Identification Tool has determined are a military veteran and have served in the Armed Forces.

Other: Validating the Military Service Identification Tool

Interventions

Validating the Military Service Identification Tool OTHER

This study seeks to validate the Military Service Identification Tool in its ability to accurately determine military service status.

Probable Civilian; Probable Veteran

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants have already been identified using the Military Service Identification Tool. In a previous research project, the Tool was run on the records of 150,000 patients extracted from the Clinical Record Interactive Search, which is managed by NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). A copy of the article describing the methodology has recently been accepted for publication in JMIR Medical Informatics (DOI: 10.2196/15852). In total 2,922 probable veterans were identified and matched to 2,922 civilians on age and gender. The dataset has a total sample size of 5,844 individuals. Once approvals are in place, we will identify those who have given consent to be contacted and meet our eligibility criteria (described in other parts of our application).

You may qualify if:

• Participants are listed as 'Alive' in the SLaM BRC Clinical Record Interactive Search database;
• Participants will be aged 18 years and old;
• Participant has given Consent for Contact;
• Participant has a valid postal or email address or telephone number;
• Participants have capacity to consent and deemed fit to participate in research by a clinician.
• Participants will be able to speak English.
• Participants will be excluded if a clinician is required to be notified of the research prior to contact, as this may indicate at risk participants. Further participants who are not fluent in spoken English will be unable to take part in the study due to inability to understand the participant information and consent form. Therefore, non-English speaking participants will not be included in this study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• King's College London: lead
• Forces in Mind Trust: collaborator
• Combat Stress: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

London, Greater Londn, SE58AZ, United Kingdom

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Mark KM, Leightley D, Pernet D, Murphy D, Stevelink SAM, Fear NT. Identifying Veterans Using Electronic Health Records in the United Kingdom: A Feasibility Study. Healthcare (Basel). 2019 Dec 19;8(1):1. doi: 10.3390/healthcare8010001.

  PMID: 31861575 BACKGROUND

Related Links

• Pre-print of the Military Service Identification Tool.

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Mental Disorders; Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personal Satisfaction; Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 5, 2020
• First Posted: March 9, 2020
• Study Start: September 1, 2020
• Primary Completion: June 1, 2022
• Study Completion: September 1, 2022
• Last Updated: September 2, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)