Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has awarded £31,805 to King’s College London to expand research into the health of former service personnel across the UK.
The six-month study, running until February 2026, will extend the existing research led by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) to include veterans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, creating nation-specific health profiles to complement data already available for England.
Building on earlier research
The new phase builds on previous FiMT-funded work which used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) – a database of anonymised medical records from primary care covering more than 60 million patients – to identify the first large-scale dataset of former service personnel in the UK.
The initial study recorded 122,000 veterans in England, 5,000 in Wales, 4,000 in Scotland and 400 in Northern Ireland. While researchers were able to link the English data to other health and socio-economic datasets, technical barriers prevented similar analysis for the devolved nations within the original timeframe.
The latest funding will allow those gaps to be filled, enabling comparisons between nations and the identification of key regional variations in veterans’ health.
Understanding regional health needs
The expanded study will explore demographic factors and health conditions among ex-service personnel in each nation, providing a clearer picture of where support and resources are most needed.
Dr Pamela Almeida-Meza, co-principal investigator at King’s College London, said the funding would help build a more complete picture of veterans’ health: “Thanks to FiMT’s continued support, we can now create a comprehensive picture of the health of ex-service personnel from across all four nations of the UK. This research will strengthen the evidence base using real-world data, ensuring services are aligned to the specific health needs of ex-service personnel.”
Strengthening the evidence base for veteran health services
FiMT chief executive Michelle Alston said the project would play an important role in improving understanding of veterans’ health across the UK. “This project helps build a more complete understanding of the health of former service personnel across the whole of the UK,” she said. “A reliable evidence base is vital to ensure the Armed Forces community receives informed support that recognises their unique health needs.”
The findings are expected to inform future policy and service delivery for veterans’ healthcare across all four nations.
