53 3 TREATMENT SEEKING IN THE MILITARY - A QUANTITATIVE STUDY .897). The mean score was used for further analysis. All analyses were performed using SPSS, except for the first logistic regression, which was performed using R. There were no missing data, as forced response answers were used during data acquisition. Ethical considerations Written informed consent was obtained from all the respondents. The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. All procedures involving human subjects/patients were approved by the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Ethics Review Boards (approval number RP324) and the Dutch Military Ethics Review Board. RESULTS Participant characteristics Response rate Some of the approached personnel had left active service (Nmental illness = 172, Nno mental illness = 134), and several duplicates within the sample were removed (caused by personnel going on multiple deployments) (Nmental illness = 37, Nno mental illness = 30), leaving a total of N = 1,627 eligible respondents. Of those, 63% (N = 1,025) started the questionnaire, and 85.7% (N = 878) answered the questionnaire, fully. Only completed questionnaires were used for further analyses. Compared to those who completed the questionnaire, those who did not were predominantly females (χ2(1, N = 1008) = 6.01, p = .014), more respondents had lower and middle education levels (χ2(2, N = 1008) = 7.25, p = .027), and consisted of more non-commissioned officers (χ2(2, N = 1006) = 8.26, p = .016). With incomplete questionnaires, the majority gave up while answering the mental health questions. Mental illness and treatment-seeking intentions Overall, N = 324 indicated having (having had) mental illness, of which 90.7% indicated having sought treatment. A Mann-Whitney test indicated that treatment-seekers reported significantly higher symptom severity (M = 7.17) than those who did not seek treatment (M = 5.83, U = 2,650.0, Z = -3.69, p < .001). For personnel without mental illness, 83% intended to seek treatment if they were to develop mental illness. Information on reported types of mental illness and current mental illness scores, separated by treatment-seeking decisions and intentions, is in Appendix B. Sample characteristics Among personnel with mental illness, there was a significant association between age and treatment-seeking decisions (χ2(4,N = 324) = 15.61, p = .004) with those who do
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw