Characteristics and health conditions of children living with veteran parents

This section reports the prevalence of long-term health conditions among different groups of children with veteran and non-veteran parents. The difference in the age distribution of children with current serving (permanent and reserves) parents, and children with ex-serving or non-veteran parents needs to be considered for comparisons involving children in the older age groups.

Since chronic or long-term health conditions increase with age, the following analyses examines broad age groups and sex differences where relevant.

One in 5 children of veterans have a long-term health condition

Of the 238,000 children identified as living with their veteran parents, 49,800 had one or more long-term health conditions, which accounted for 21% of veterans’ children. Of children living with non-veteran parents 17% had long-term health conditions. The prevalence of long-term health conditions within detailed age groups for all children living with their parents is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 shows that male children under 15 years of age had a higher prevalence of long-term health conditions than female children in this age group. However, from 15 years of age, female children had a higher prevalence of long-term health conditions than male children (related information is available in AIHW’s prior publication, The health of Australia’s females).

Compared with non-veteran’s children, the male children of veterans showed a higher prevalence of long-term health conditions between 10 and 54 years while the female children of veterans displayed higher prevalence from 15 years of age.

Prevalence of long-term conditions in veteran and non-veteran children differ from around age 15

Children under 15 with one or more veteran parents and children of non-veteran parents had comparable prevalence of long-term health conditions (13% compared with 12%).

Dependent students aged 15–24 with one or more veteran parents had a 23% prevalence of long-term health conditions (9,900 dependent students) compared with 20% for the dependent students of non-veterans. Among dependent students with one veteran parent, the prevalence was 22% for those with permanent and reserves parents and 24% for those with ex-serving parents.

Non-dependent children aged 15–24 with one or more veteran parents had a 28% prevalence of long-term health conditions (7,500 non-dependent children) compared with 24% for those with non-veteran parents. Among non-dependent children aged 15–24 with one veteran parent, the prevalence was 27% for those with a permanent parent, 28% for those with a reserves parents and 29% for those with an ex-serving parent.

The largest difference in prevalence of long-term health conditions among children living with their parents was observed in the non-dependent 25 years and older group. These older children with one or more veteran parents had a prevalence of 43% (corresponding to 14,400) compared with 34% for children of non-veteran parents.

Note: the proportions (%) for the ‘compare to’ group are visible in the tooltips.

Comparisons with children of non-veteran parents are not reliable due to counts lower than 20 for:

• female children aged 30–34 with current serving permanent parents
• male children aged 35–44 with current serving reserve parents

Females aged 15 and over are more likely to have multiple health conditions

Of all children living with their parents, 2.4% of children (5,700 out of 238,000) with one or more veteran parents and 1.6% of children with non-veteran parents had 2 or more long-term health conditions (multimorbidity).

The proportion of children under 15 years with multimorbidity was similar between veterans’ children (0.6% corresponding to 780) and non-veterans’ children (0.5%). The prevalence of multimorbidity increased with age.

Among children with only one veteran parent, children with an ex-serving parent generally displayed a larger increase in multimorbidity with age than children with current serving or non-veteran parents (Figure 6). The increase in the proportion of children with multimorbidity with age was more pronounced for females.

Of children with ex-serving parents, female dependent students aged 15–24 were twice as likely to report having 2 or more long-term health conditions than male dependent students (2.8%, corresponding to 470, compared with 1.4%, corresponding to 235). The higher prevalence of multimorbidity among female children compared with male children was also observed among the non-dependent children, aged 15–24 years, of ex-serving parents (4.3%, corresponding to 375, compared with 2.3%, corresponding to 305).

Notes: the proportions (%) for the children of non-veteran parents are shown in tool tips.

Comparisons involving the male children aged 25 years and older for the current serving veterans are not reliable due to counts lower than 20.

There is a difference in the age distribution of the non-dependent 25 years and older children of current serving parents, non-veteran parents and ex-serving parents. This should be taken into consideration for any comparison involving this group (see Figure 1).

Mental health and asthma are the most common long-term conditions

The three most common long-term health conditions among children living with their parents, were mental health conditions, asthma and other long-term health condition(s). For children with one or more veteran parents, mental health conditions were the most common (8.3%) followed by asthma (7.3%) and other long-term health condition(s) (7.3%). Among children with non-veteran parents, asthma was most common (7.4%) followed by mental health conditions (5.8%) then other long-term health condition(s) (5.2%).

Asthma was the most common health condition for children under 15 years of age. Asthma was slightly more prevalent in children with non-veteran parents (6.6%), than in children with permanent or reserves parents (both 5.3%), but similar to children of ex-serving parents (6.3%). Children with 2 veteran parents had the lowest prevalence of asthma (4.4%) making it the second most common condition for this group after other long-term health condition(s) (5.5%). Mental health conditions affected 2.8% of children under 15 with veteran parents and 2.2% of children with non-veteran parents.

The higher prevalence of long-term health conditions noted earlier in male children under 15 years of age relative to similar aged female children appears to be driven by a higher prevalence of asthma and other long-term health condition(s).

Mental health conditions were the most common long-term health condition for veterans’ children aged over 15 years irrespective of the children’s dependency status, number of veteran parents, or parents’ service status. Mental health conditions were also the most common condition for non-dependent children aged 15–24 (13%) and 25 years and older (16%) with non-veteran parents. For dependent students with non-veteran parents, the prevalence of asthma (8.5%) and mental health conditions (8.1%) were similar.

Around half of the veterans’ children with a long-term health condition who were aged 15 years and older had a mental health condition (Table 2). Of veterans’ children with a long-term condition, non-dependent children aged 15–24 years had the highest prevalence of mental health conditions (56%).

Notes:

• The proportions in this table are expressed as the percentage of children with that specific condition out of the children in the same age and dependency group with any of the long-term conditions. It is not shown as a percentage of all children in that age and dependency group.
• The sum of proportions for long-term health condition in each age and dependency group do not equal 100% since an individual may have more than one condition.