Does Deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan Affect Respiratory Health of US Military Personnel?

Objective: To evaluate the association between postdeployment respiratory conditions and deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Methods: We linked deployment history of US military personnel with postdeployment medical records. We then conducted a nested case-control study. Results: Relative to a single...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2012-06, Vol.54 (6), p.740-745
Main Authors: Abraham, Joseph H., DeBakey, Samar F., Reid, Lawrence, Zhou, Joey, Baird, Coleen P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Afghan Campaign 2001
Armed forces
Case-Control Studies
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Correlation analysis
Female
Human exposure
Humans
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Lung Diseases, Obstructive - epidemiology
Male
Military Personnel - statistics & numerical data
Original Article
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective: To evaluate the association between postdeployment respiratory conditions and deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Methods: We linked deployment history of US military personnel with postdeployment medical records. We then conducted a nested case-control study. Results: Relative to a single deployment, multiple deployments were not significantly associated with obstructive pulmonary disease (odds ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.42). Cumulative time deployed was also not significantly associated with obstructive pulmonary disease. Nevertheless, we did note that the rate of respiratory symptoms and encounters for obstructive pulmonary diseases (predominantly asthma and bronchitis) increased from before to after deployment. Conclusions: In a population of active duty US military personnel, we observed an increase in postdeployment respiratory symptoms and medical encounters for obstructive pulmonary diseases, relative to predeployment rates, in the absence of an association with cumulative deployment duration or total number of deployments.
ISSN:1076-2752
1536-5948
DOI:10.1097/JOM.0b013e318252969a