Today is Veterans Day.
We are going to tell you what a number means.
14.42 points.
That is the average reduction in PCL-5 scores for veterans who complete the WarriorWOD program.
The PCL-5 is the standard clinical instrument for measuring PTSD severity. A reduction of 10 to 20 points is considered clinically meaningful. Veterans who completed our program averaged 14.42.
The data
- Pre-program PCL-5 average: 43.37
- Post-program PCL-5 average: 28.95
- Mean reduction: 14.42 points
- Statistical significance: p < .001
- Effect size: Cohen’s d = 1.33
- Sample: 21 matched pairs
A Cohen’s d of 1.33 is a large effect. Most PTSD interventions in the clinical literature report effect sizes between 0.5 and 1.0. This study reached 1.33.
This was not self-reported or internally measured. The study was independently verified at the College of Charleston.
265 veterans have completed the program.
Nine of those veterans came in with a documented history of suicidal ideation.
All nine are still alive.
What Veterans Day looks like here
It looks like a PCL-5 score dropping from 43 to 29. It looks like a veteran who showed up with suicidal ideation and is still here a year later. It looks like 265 people who did the work and came out the other side.
That is what this day means to us.
If you are a journalist, researcher, or policy organization looking for outcome data on veteran PTSD recovery: the full methodology, sample characteristics, and results are available below.
View the full research data and methodology
Phil Palmer
Founder, WarriorWOD
