Women representation in MVP helps strengthen health research

Did you know that women are the fastest-growing segment of the Veteran population, and that one in 10 participants in VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) are women? By joining their ranks and signing up for MVP, you can help researchers make health care breakthroughs that matter to you and your fellow women Veterans.

Strength in numbers leads to greater health care for all women Veterans

One of MVP’s strengths is the number and diversity of its participants, which allows the program to make discoveries that benefit Veteran health care.

This is especially true for VA researchers Drs. Shiuh-Wen Luoh and Hongyu Zhao, who study breast cancer risk in women Veterans. Luoh and Zhao recently discovered that commonly used breast cancer risk assessments did not predict breast cancer for women Veterans with African ancestry as well as it did for women Veterans with European ancestry. This finding lays the groundwork for researchers to develop breast cancer risk assessments that work better for women from minority populations.

“As researchers, our goal is to always use the information we receive to give back to Veterans,” said Luoh, staff physician at Portland VA. “We’re thankful to MVP participants who allow us to continue this work and service to all.”

This important finding was only possible because of the large number and representation of minority women in MVP.

“Success in research depends entirely on the number of people involved. The more women involved in MVP, the greater chance for novel scientific discoveries,” said Dr. Zhao, a clinical epidemiology researcher at West Haven VA and professor at Yale School of Public Health.

Women’s health findings at MVP

In honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re sharing some of MVP’s research findings related to women’s health care. In addition to MVP’s breast cancer research, we’ve also learned more about:

• Part of a gene that’s connected to both depression and endometriosis, suggesting that care for endometriosis may be improved by taking a whole health approach
• Genetic risk factors that may cause osteoarthritis, which could lead to new interventions and treatments
• Ways Veterans can lower risk of death from heart disease through nutrition—including regularly eating nuts (but not peanut butter)
• The different ways hearing loss affects men and women, and sex-specific differences that may lead to targeted medications for hearing loss

Joining MVP also means helping to ensure women of all races and ethnicities are represented in medical research and thus benefit from the discoveries. “Using new genetic strategies through MVP helps us look at associations more carefully across diverse populations, not just for breast cancer risk but also for other common disease types to bridge the knowledge gap between different ancestry groups,” said Dr. Zhao.

Join MVP to help make a difference for women Veterans

All women deserve specialized health care and MVP is committed to leading the way. The more women who participate, the more opportunities researchers have to understand how military experiences and genetics affect overall health and wellness, helping to improve health care for women Veterans of all backgrounds. By joining the 980,000+ Veterans in MVP, you can help make a difference for women Veterans like you.

Sign up today at https://www.mvp.va.gov/pwa/ or call 866-441-6075 to make an appointment at a participating VA facility. You don’t need to receive your care at VA to participate.