Health and well being of veterans and service members

health and well-being of Veterans and Service members with
combat-related PTSD symptomatology. The findings could serve
to inform future research aimed at developing interpersonal as
well as organizational trust among combat Veterans and Service
members, in addition to mitigating any adverse health effects
resulting from having difficulty with general trust.
Frontiers in Psychiatry | 2 September 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 408

Kopacz et al. Trust and PTSD
METHODOLOGY
Participants for this cross-sectional study were recruited from
six different sites. This included a sample of n = 373 Veterans
recruited from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical
Center (MC) in Durham ( n = 72; North Carolina), VA Greater
Los Angeles Healthcare System ( n = 99; California), Charlie
Norwood VAMC ( n = 119; Augusta, Georgia), Michael E.
DeBakey VAMC ( n = 48; Houston, Texas), Audie L. Murphy
VAMC ( n = 35; San Antonio, Texas). A sample of n = 54 active
duty Service members were recruited through Liberty University
( n = 54; Lynchburg, Virginia). Only Veteran or active duty
Service members, with a self-reported history of deployment to
a combat theater, and exhibiting PTSD symptoms were included
in this study.
The data analyzed here were drawn from a larger study
examining the psychometric properties of a measure of moral
injury. A detailed methodology of this larger study has been
published elsewhere ( 35 ). In brief, after informed consent was
obtained, paper questionnaires were completed in person at all
sites except the Liberty University site where the questionnaire
was completed online. Participants were compensated with a
$25 gift card for their time. This study was approved by the
institutional review boards (IRBs) and Research & Development
(R&D) Committees at Duke University as well as at each
data collection site. The demographic, military, social, religious,
psychological, and physical health characteristics of the sample
are presented in Table 1 .
We applied several procedural remedies in an effort to
mitigate any potential for common method bias ( 36 ). As part
of the informed consent process, the sample was duly informed
that responses would not be applied for diagnostic purposes nor
would responses come to bear on the Veteran’s or the Service
member’s provision of health care services or other benefits.
Further, all responses were provided anonymously. The survey
packet included a variety of questions and instruments with
instructions designed to preclude any issues related to question
order or “socially desirable responses.” Lastly, our measurements
were in large part limited to high-quality empirically validated
and published instruments which have already been extensively
used in research.
Measures
DemographicCharacteristics
Respondents were asked their age, gender, race, education,
and marital status. Respondents were also asked their religious
affiliation, with the following answer options: Christian,
Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, other, no affiliation, and
atheist/agnostic.