Armed Services Trauma Rehabilitation Outcome Study (ADVANCE)
The ADVANCE study is a prospective cohort study of British male military personnel deployed on combat operations in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2014. The sample includes serving and former personnel; a group which sustained severe combat-related trauma during the Afghanistan conflict (injured) and a comparison group of the same size matched based on deployment to Afghanistan, age, sex, service, regiment, rank, and role-in-theatre (uninjured). The sample does not include female participants due to the very few female United Kingdom military combat casualties in Afghanistan. Baseline assessments were conducted between 2015 and 2020, and the first follow-up was conducted between 2019 and 2023. The second follow-up is currently underway and due to be completed in 2026.
Study design
Cohort, Cohort - occupational
Number of participants at first data collection
579 (injured)
565 (uninjured [comparison group])
Age at first data collection
Varied (participants)
Participant year of birth
Varied (participants)
Participant sex
Male
Representative sample at baseline?
No
Sample features
Countries
Year of first data collection
2015
Primary Institutions
Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation
Imperial College London (Imperial, ICL)
King's College London (KCL)
Profile paper DOI
Funders
Advance Charity
Blesma, The Limbless Veterans
Forces in Mind Trust
Headley Court Charity
Help for Heroes
Ongoing?
Yes
Data types collected
- Activity log (e.g. food, sleep, exercise)
- Computer, paper or task testing (e.g. cognitive testing, theory of mind doll task, attention computer tasks)
- Interview – face-to-face
- Physical or biological assessment (e.g. blood, saliva, gait, grip strength, anthropometry)
- Secondary data
- Wearable devices
- Self-completed questionnaire – paper or computer assisted
- Qualitative survey
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Healthcare data
Engagement
Keywords
Consortia and dataset groups
