title: Physical health symptomatology of Gulf War-era service personnel from the states of Pennsylvania and Hawaii.
abstract: We present data on physical health and possible "Gulf War syndrome" from a Congressionally mandated study of over 4,000 active duty and reserve service members from the states of Hawaii and Pennsylvania who served during Operation Desert Storm. We found that deployed veterans report significantly more physical health symptoms than non-deployed veterans that cannot be explained by reasons other than deployment alone. We also identified a subgroup of 178 deployed veterans at risk for possible Gulf War syndrome. We recommend that services collect baseline information from units likely to deploy in the future and update that information regularly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20307-5100, USA.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Stretch
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Bliese
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Marlowe
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Knudson
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hoover
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008877:Middle East; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012307:Risk Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013577:Syndrome; D014481:United States; D014857:Warfare