An exploration of the changes to occupational participation during military-to-civilian transition: The experiences of Australian Defence Force members.

Only 12 people took part, all Australian, so the themes describe this group rather than the wider ADF community. Recruitment and interviews were done online, so people without reliable internet access were not recruited. The time-use percentages are participants' own retrospective estimates of how they spent their time during service, made after the fact, not measured or logged data. Participants' specific roles were removed to protect their anonymity as required by ethics approval, so some detail that would have supported the findings is missing. The first author had himself transitioned out of the ADF after nine years, which the team describes as enriching the analysis; readers should weigh how much that shaped the interpretation.

The authors declare no competing interests in the research, authorship or publication of the article. The work was funded by the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the Australian Government Research Training Program.

Do not read this as evidence that keeping up hobbies and friendships during service would fix transition, or that an occupational therapy transition programme works. No intervention was tested. Twelve people described, after the fact, what they remembered about their own service and transition, so this can suggest what to ask about but cannot show what changes an outcome.