Posted on 05/13/2002 12:13:50 PM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
A new study has identified risk factors that might help explain reports of poor health by Gulf War veterans.The study focused on 3,700 Iowa veterans who served during the 1991 war. Researchers analyzed information gathered five years after the war in a telephone survey, and compared veterans deployed to the war zone with those who were not.
Results showed that deployment was significantly linked to poorer mental and physical health. The study said that pre-war smoking, physical and mental problems and lack of military fitness and training by deployed troops made it more likely that they would be in poorer health after the war than nondeployed troops.
For instance, the research determined that troops deployed with conditions such as high blood pressure, migraine headaches and asthma were more likely after the war to report poorer health than troops who weren't deployed but had the same conditions.
Dr. Bradley Doubbeling, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, said the study is important because it offers specific measures for screening troops for health risks before deployment, and provides some explanation for Gulf War illness.
"It takes it out of the realm of being a mystery illness entirely," he said.
Doubbeling said smoking was one of the most profound risk factors revealed by the study. Like other studies, the research found veterans deployed to the Gulf War reported poorer health than veterans who weren't deployed.
The war had its greatest impact on the "general health and vitality" of deployed veterans, the study showed. For instance, 31 percent of the veterans in the study who didn't go to war reported "excellent health," compared with 21 percent of deployed veterans.
"Although the differences associated with deployment were relatively small, they appear to be important," Dr. Kenneth Saag, an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and one of the study's lead authors, said in a prepared release. He declined further comment.
The research will be published Wednesday in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
In a prepared statement, the Department of Defense concurred with the study, and said it accentuated the need to monitor and protect the health of troops.
"That only strengthens our resolve to continue to improve force health protection measures throughout the services," said Dr. Bill Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
Battle Rages Over Vets' Ailments
Source: San Antonio Express-News; Published: May 12, 2002;
Author: Matt Crenson
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