Rates of Covid 19 testing and positivity in US military veterans with SMI

• Published in: Journal of psychosomatic research 2023-11, Vol.174, p.111483-111483, Article 111483
• Main Authors: Soreca, Isabella, Boudreaux-Kelly, Monique Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; Covid-19 testing; Severe mental illness
• ISSN: 0022-3999; 1879-1360
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111483

to compare differences in COVID-19 testing rates and rates of positive test results between Veterans with and without SMI and identify the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics affecting COVID-19 testing/results. Cohort study on data from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), a data repository from clinical and administrative VA systems. The sample included Veterans who had ≥1 outpatient encounters nationally between 01/01/2019 and 12/31/2020. SMI diagnoses were derived as relevant ICD codes within the calendar years 2019–2020. Non-SMI Veterans were matched to SMI Veterans by age, gender, race and ethnicity for comparisons. The study included 1,018,047 Veterans, 339,349 had a diagnosis of SMI, and 83% were male. In unadjusted analyses, Veterans with SMI were more likely to receive testing for Covid 19 than non-SMI, however after adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, region, and service utilization, Veterans with SMI were 6% less likely to receive testing for Covid 19 than non-SMI, with differences by type of SMI diagnosis: patients with psychosis (9.8%, P = .008) and schizophrenia (12.2%, P