VA Sets New Research Agenda to Improve Care for Women Veterans

New priorities for women veterans’ health research are poised to help the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) deliver more equitable, evidence-based care to a rapidly growing and increasingly complex patient population, according to study results published in Women’s Health Issues.

Women veterans have become the fastest-growing group of new users in the Veterans Health Administration, nearly doubling to about 500 000 between 2010 and 2020. As their use of VA services rises, so does recognition that women veterans face distinct health challenges, including military sexual trauma, occupational and environmental exposures, musculoskeletal injuries, and high rates of service-connected disability. These realities have fueled a push to update the VA’s women’s health research agenda for the first time in more than a decade.

The effort was led by the VA-funded Women’s Health Research Network, which has substantially expanded the field, including nearly doubling publications on women veterans’ health from 2016 to 2023 and increasing active VA-funded women’s health systems research projects from 7 in 2014 to 50 in 2023, contributing to a total of 91 funded projects over the last 10 years. 

“We used multilevel engagement strategies to update the research agenda, ensuring its relevance for the health system and women veterans who rely on it,” explained Adriana Rodriguez, PhD, VA Health Systems Research (HSR) Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation & Policy (CSHIIP), VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, and coauthors. 

First, a 1.5-day national conference in September 2023 convened 139 stakeholders and identified 54 research gaps, later refined into 57 priority topics. Second, 12 senior VA leaders used a modified Delphi process to prioritize these topics based on their potential impact on practice and policy over the next 5 years.

The final list included 14 research priorities. The highest-rated topic was research on understudied reproductive health conditions common in midlife and older women veterans, such as fibroids, menopause, and urinary incontinence. Other top priorities included studies of women veterans’ experiences with community care, improvements in primary and preventive care delivery, and research addressing health disparities and social determinants among historically marginalized groups.

Additional priorities focused on expanding access for women who do not currently use VA care, improving mental health services related to trauma and suicide prevention, strengthening trust in the VA, addressing substance use disorders, and improving care for chronic conditions and pregnancy-related health needs.

“Overall, the research agenda identified is fundamentally anchored in the collective needs and expertise of researchers, VA program leaders, other federal agency leaders, and women veterans,” concluded the study authors. “The priorities fit the framework of topics identified in the decade-old research agenda, with the expansion of new research priorities,” they added.

Reference

Rodriguez A, Fenwick KM, Borsky AE, Frayne SM, Hamilton AB, Yano EM. Results of a multistep approach to setting research priorities to improve women veterans' health: Updated VA women's health research agenda. Womens Health Issues. 2026;36(2):139-150. doi:10.1016/j.whi.2025.12.004