Authors

Jamie Edwards¹;  ¹ OSGA, UK

Discussion

Military service as an early adult life experience has the potential to influence future health outcomes and trajectories, either directly through trauma and injury sustained in service, or indirectly through e.g. the formation of habits that carry through into post-military life. For some generations of older men, military service is an almost universal cohort experience; however, many studies of aging often neglect to consider this, leading military experience to be described as a "hidden variable" in later life health outcomes and trajectories. In the Russian context, while there is a significant literature on men's health, military service is rarely discussed here as a potential contributing factor to outcomes seen.

Evidence from the wider life course literature on health and military service on the health outcomes of military service varies, with some evidence e.g. that veterans have lower mortality rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) or that non-combat veterans have lower rates of disability. Veterans, however, are more likely to have higher rates of harmful health behaviours – particularly smoking and drinking, which are linked in turn with CVD. Combat exposure is consistently linked with negative health outcomes, with increased rates of emotional distress, disability, and mortality, with the effects of combat varying depending on era and conflict.

Based on data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey from 1994 to 2019, this paper would seek to ask, in line with previous life course work, what are the consequences of military service with regard to health outcomes and trajectories for Russian men? What differences can be seen for those who did military service during wartime compared with during peacetime?