A - 69 Examining Differences in Neuropsychological Test Performance Based on Deployment Era and Years Served in United States Veterans.

Abstract

To determine the influence of years of military service and deployment era on neurocognitive performance. Archival data included 316 veterans (89.6% male; 94.3% White) seen for neuropsychological evaluation at the Portland VA (M/SD: age = 55.54/14.39; education = 13.32/2.44). Participants were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Two-way between-subjects analyses of variance (ANOVAs) examined the effects of years of service and deployment era on test performance. Bonferroni post-hoc tests compared differences between groups when a significant main effect was observed. Significant main effects were found for deployment era on TOMM Retention trial (F(4, 20) = 4.39, p = 0.04), WAIS-IV Block Design (F(5, 244) = 2.45, p = 0.04), WMS-IV Logical Memory I (F(5, 230) = 3.79, p < 0.01), Trail Making Test Part A (F(5, 242) = 3.54, p < 0.01), Trail Making Test Part B (F(5, 227) = 3.38, p < 0.01) and Grooved Pegboard for nondominant hand (F(4, 86) = 3.22, p < 0.05). Significant main effects were also observed for years of service for Trail Making Test Part A (F(4, 242) = 2.81, p < 0.05) and DKEFS Color-Word Trial 2 (F(4, 77) = 2.67, p < 0.05). A significant interaction was found between deployment era and years served on the BVMT-R total recall score (F(15, 213) = 1.92, p < 0.05). Post-hoc analyses did not reveal significant variance accounted for on neuropsychological tests. While there were significant differences between multiple measures, deployment era and years of service do not impact veteran's cognitive performance.