Results for the 2015 HRBS

The Health Related Behaviors Survey (HRBS) is the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)'s flagship survey for understanding the health, health-related behaviors, and well-being of service members. Fielded periodically for more than 30 years, the HRBS asks questions about health-related issues that can affect force readiness or the ability to meet the demands of military life.

This page contains results from the 2015 HRBS. The RAND Corporation fielded the survey three years later in 2018, and published the most-recent findings in 2021.

The Defense Health Agency asked RAND to field the 2015 HRBS among active component U.S. military service members in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard between November 2015 and March 2016. Roughly 17,000 service members participated in the survey. The survey examined health-related behaviors in several areas, including:

• health promotion and disease prevention
• substance use
• mental and emotional health
• physical health and functional limitations
• sexual behavior and health
• sexual orientation, transgender identity and health
• deployment experiences and health.

This page catalogs the findings from the 2015 HRBS, including summaries by topic and service branch infographics.