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POSTWAR MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY AMONG PERSIAN GULF VETERANS.

Some military personnel who served in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War have reported adverse health effects from infections, oil-well fires, chemical or biologic warfare agents, and other causes. These two government-funded studies examined postwar mortality and hospitalization among these veterans through late 1993.

First, researchers compared mortality data for 695,000 Gulf War veterans and 746,000 military personnel who served in 1990-91 but did not go to the Persian Gulf. After adjustment for baseline differences between the two groups, Gulf War veterans had a significant 9 percent higher mortality rate during the two years after the war. However, accidents -- not diseases -- accounted entirely for the excess deaths.

The second study used similar methodology to examine postwar hospitalizations. The overall rate of hospitalization was not higher for Gulf War veterans than for other veterans. Gulf War veterans had slightly higher hospitalization rates for some diagnoses and lower rates for others; however, there was no pattern to these differences, with the possible exception of excess hospitalization for alcohol and drug dependence.

Comment: These studies provide considerable reassurance, but do not exclude the possibility of war-related physical ailments that did not result in significant excess death or hospitalization. Moreover, the increases in accidental death and alcohol- and drug-related hospitalizations are noteworthy.

— AS Brett

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine November 22, 1996

Citation(s):

Kang HK; Bullman TA. Mortality among U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf war. N Engl J Med 1996 Nov 14 335 1498-1504.

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• Medline abstract (Free)

Gray GC et al. The postwar hospitalization experience of U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf war. N Engl J Med 1996 Nov 14 335 1505-1513.

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• Medline abstract (Free)