Veterans have experienced a wide variety of health problems since their Gulf War service. These problems, in aggregate, are different from what has been seen in other armed conflicts. The Department of Veterans Affairs registry is a very large case series and has failed to identify a single, unique syndrome or new illness after Gulf War service. An epidemiologic study would better define the prevalence of specific symptoms and medical conditions among Gulf War veterans and to what extent any of the conditions identified are associated with Gulf War military service. The knowledge provided by such studies would be important to development of preventive measures and future deployment medical surveillance planning.
Most of today's 1.7 million women veterans obtain all or most of their medical care outside the VA health care system, where their veteran status is rarely recognized or acknowledged. Several aspects of women's military service have been associated with adverse psychologic and physical outcomes, and failure to assess women's veteran status, their deployment status, and military trauma history could delay identifying or treating such conditions. Yet few clinicians know of women's military history--or of military service's impact on women's subsequent health and well being. Because an individual's military service may be best understood within the historical context in which it occurred, we provide a focused historical overview of women's military contributions and their steady integration into the Armed Forces since the War for Independence. We then describe some of the medical and psychiatric conditions associated with military service.
The health of women who participated in Operations Desert Shield/Storm was evaluated to better understand the medical requirements of deployed military women and women veterans of the Persian Gulf War. Women's health care needs during the Persian Gulf War were reported to be very similar to those of men, with the exception of gynecologic problems, which generally were not serious and did not require hospitalization. However, insufficient data were obtained to identify specific health care needs among deployed women troops. During the 5 years since the end of the Persian Gulf War, no unique health problems have been identified among women veterans. Whether there will be any exceptional long-term health care requirements currently is unknown. Nevertheless, important medical problems of all women-reproductive issues, menopause, osteoporosis, joint disease, breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke-inevitably will be major considerations when caring for this population of war veterans.
Background Since the 1965–1975 Vietnam War, there has been persistent concern that women who served in the U.S. military in Vietnam may have experienced adverse pregnancy outcomes. Methods We compared self‐reported pregnancy outcomes for 4,140 women Vietnam veterans with those of 4,140 contemporary women veterans who were not deployed to Vietnam. As a measure of association, we calculated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using logistic regression adjusting for age at conception, race, education, military nursing status, smoking, drinking and other exposures during pregnancy. Results There was no statistically significant association between military service in Vietnam and index pregnancies resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth, low birth weight, pre‐term delivery, or infant death. The risk of having children with “moderate‐to‐severe” birth defects was significantly elevated among Vietnam veterans (adjusted OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.06–2.02). Conclusions The risk of birth defects among index children was significantly associated with mother's military service in Vietnam. Am. J. Ind. Med. 38:447–454, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.