The Women's Reproductive Health Survey (WRHS) of Active-Duty Service Members.

The Women's Reproductive Health Survey (WRHS) of active-duty service members represents the first time since the 1990s that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has sponsored a department-wide survey of only service women. Maintaining the readiness of the U.S. armed forces requires attention to the health and health care needs of all who serve, including active-duty service women (ADSW). With respect to reproductive health, Congress passed two pieces of legislation in the 2016 and 2017 National Defense Authorization Acts that required DoD to provide ADSW access to comprehensive family planning and counseling services and to do so at predeployment and annual physical exams. The legislation also required DoD to conduct a survey of ADSW's experiences with family planning services and counseling and use and availability of preferred birth control methods. RAND Corporation researchers developed the WRHS to address these two pieces of congressional legislation. The Coast Guard requested that RAND also field the survey among its ADSW. In this study, the authors detail the methodology, sample demographics, and results from the survey (conducted between early August and early November 2020) across a number of domains: health care utilization, birth control and contraceptive use, reproductive health during training and deployment, fertility and pregnancy, and infertility. Differences are examined by service branch, pay grade, age group, race/ethnicity, marital status, and sexual orientation. The results are intended to inform policy initiatives to help support the readiness, health, and well-being of ADSW.

2015 Department of Defense Health Related Behaviors Survey (HRBS).

The Health Related Behaviors Survey (HRBS) is the U.S. Department of Defense's flagship survey for understanding the health, health-related behaviors, and well-being of service members. In 2014, the Defense Health Agency asked the RAND Corporation to review previous iterations of the HRBS, update survey content, administer a revised version of the survey, and analyze data from the resulting 2015 HRBS of active-duty personnel, including those in the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard. This study details the methodology, sample demographics, and results from that survey in the following domains: health promotion and disease prevention; substance use; mental and emotional health; physical health and functional limitations; sexual behavior and health; sexual orientation, transgender identity, and health; and deployment experiences and health. The results presented here are intended to supplement data already collected by the Department of Defense and to inform policy initiatives to help improve the readiness, health, and well-being of the force.