Trajectories of aging in older veterans: first follow up of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Veterans Health Initiative

The CLSA Veterans Health Initiative (CLSA-VHI) was developed in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada to study aging in older military Veterans in Canada. A set of Veteran Identifier Questions was included at CLSA baseline and over 4,400 CLSA participants self-identified as military Veterans including more than 3500 military Veterans of Canadian Forces and approximately 900 military Veterans of Forces outside Canada. In this project we will use data from the first two waves of data collection (three years apart) to describe changes in physical and mental health according to Veteran status and selected military related variables including branch of service, duration of service and country of service. Using the information collected in the COVID-19 Questionnaire, we will also examine changes in depression and anxiety in the first 6 months of the pandemic in the approximately 2,300 CLSA Veterans who participated in the questionnaire study conducted in 2020.