Investigating the relationship between mental health status and the length of deployment to an Iranian Island among deployed military personnel

Military personnel, especially maritime border guards, are often at risk of physical and psychological damage when they work in challenging climates and at a distance from their families. The current study aimed to determine the relationship between mental health and the length of deployment to an Iranian island among deployed military personnel.

This is an analytical study, and the study population consisted of all military personnel deployed to An Iranian Island in 2018. Sampling was performed by census method. Mental health was investigated by use of the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) questionnaire. The length of deployment on the island was recorded in months. The research team visited the island to distribute questionnaires among the military personnel and gather data. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.18 software.

A total of 170 questionnaires were completed by deployed military personnel in an Iranian island. The mean age was 23.2 ± 4.5 years old. The mean (±standard deviation) deployment length was 19.1±30.5 months (range: 1‒50 months). Assessment of mental health by the SCL90 questionnaire showed that on the psychoticism, paranoid ideation, hostility, depression, obsessive-compulsive, somatization, PST (positive symptoms total), and GSI (General Severity Index) scales, respondents had a mean score of more than one (>1).  Therefore respondents were considered to have malaise. None of the scales used indicates a mental disorder. By increasing the duration of deployment to the island, the mean scores for all scales were increased but this finding was not significant.

Increasing length of deployment in an Iranian island had a negative effect on the mental health of military personnel on all scales. Although the deployed military personnel were generally not considered to have mental disorders, greater efforts should be made to improve the mental health of deployed military personnel on an Iranian island and avoid lengthy missions away from their families.