What do we already know about this topic?

• MST is defined by the VA as sexual assault or harassment occurring during military service.
• Prevalence is estimated to range from 2–90% amongst the US military population.¹ 
• Prior analyses have correlated MST with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, and pain conditions, including migraine and headache.^2,3
• No large-scale studies have evaluated MST and migraine headache in a veteran population.

How was this study conducted?

• A retrospective cohort study of 846,435 veterans extracted from the Women’s Veteran’s Cohort Study (WVCS) data set, that evaluated post-9/11 US veterans enrolled for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care.
• Exposure was defined as a positive MST screen in the VHA electronic medical record.
• Outcome measures included prevalence of migraine, psychiatric and other pain co-morbidities, use of migraine headache treatments, and specialist physician and acute care usage.