Increased Risk of Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Spouses of Gulf War Era Veterans

Military Medicine
Melvin BlanchardLi Xue

Abstract

In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defined chronic multisymptom illness (CMI), a symptom complex in deployed veterans (DVs) of the 1991 Gulf War 1. The specific aim of this work is to determine the prevalence of CMI in spouses of DV and nondeployed veterans (NDVs) and whether veteran CMI is associated with spouse CMI, and to describe the physical and psychological profile of spouses with CMI. To determine whether veteran CMI was associated with CMI in their spouses, we used retrospective data from the "National Health Survey of Gulf War Veterans and Their Families." Cross-sectional data were collected from spouses of veterans enrolled in the study, including those of 482 DVs and 532 NDVs who participated in an in-person examination between 1999 and 2001. In addition to a physical examination, this study evaluated health-related quality of life (Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36, SF-36), psychological symptoms, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) status, and measured a variety of common laboratory tests. Statistical analyses included Fisher's Exact Test (or Mantel-Haenszel χ2 test for linear trend) as well as odds ratios (ODs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for categorical data. For continuous o...Continue Reading

Citations


❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.