Susan D. Hosek

To inform improvements to the quality of care delivered by the military health system for posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, researchers developed a framework and identified, developed, and described a candidate set of measures for monitoring, assessing, and improving the quality of care. This document describes their research approach and the measure sets that they identified.

The Army wished to understand whether the Army s Force Generation (ARFORGEN) cycle created ebbs and flows in the ability of military treatment facilities to provide care and respond to changing family needs as soldiers and care providers deploy and return home. This study examines how the cycle affects capability and soldier health care utilization at Army military treatment facilities and how it affects family health care utilization."

Determines whether gender differences exist in federal research grant awards and funding. On the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), this report analyzes administrative data from fiscal years 2001 through 2003, describing the outcomes of grant applications submitted by women versus men to federal agencies. The report focuses on three federal agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services, in particular, the National Institutes of Health; the NSF; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Provides a framework for understanding the effects of changes in the Military Health System benefit structure on the demand for health care services paid for by the DoD. This report reviews the economic literature on the elasticity of demand for health care to provide a framework for understanding the effects of changes in the Military Health System benefit structure on the demand for health care services paid for by the DoD. Despite the wide variety of empirical methods and data sources used in the literature, the demand for health care is consistently found to be price inelastic, with values centering around -0.17. The demand for some specific medical services such as preventive care or pharmacy, however, is found to be more price sensitive with values around -0.30. Changes in the price of health care affect health plan enrollment choices as well as the demand for services. Studies show that consumers may be induced to switch between insurance plans in response to changes in their relative prices. The report concludes with a discussion of the potential effects of four aspects of the FY2001 National Defense Authorization Act. (author)

Since the military draft ended in 1975, newly commissioned officers have included increasing numbers of minorities and women. These officers must be retained and promoted for the senior officer ranks to become as diverse as the junior officer ranks are today. This report examines whether minority and women officers obtain these promotions and choose to continue in their careers at the same rate as other officers. The authors conducted two research efforts: analyzing personnel records and interviewing midcareer officers, personnel managers, and promotion board members individually and in focus groups. Results for minorities other than blacks were limited due to small sample sizes. White women were found to be less likely to reach higher officer ranks than were men, mostly because they chose to leave the military between promotions. Black male and black female officers generally failed promotions in higher proportions than did white males, but were more likely to stay in the military between promotions.The interviews and focus groups revealed different perceptions about careers: Black officers seemed to have greater difficulty forming all-important peer and mentor relationships and overcoming initial expectations of lower performance. Women's careers have been affected by limited occupational opportunities, inconsistent acceptance of their role as military officers, harassment, and family conflicts.