title: The occupational role of women in military service: validation of occupation and prevalence of exposures in the Millennium Cohort Study.
abstract: To better understand the US military's global peacekeeping and combat operations, which may expose a growing population of American service women to challenging occupations and environments. Concordance between self-reported and electronic occupation codes for female participants in the Millennium Cohort was measured using kappa statistics. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to assess the odds of five self-reported potentially toxic environmental exposures or disturbing experiences among different occupational categories, while adjusting for demographic and military characteristics, including deployment. Self-reported occupations were moderately to highly reliable when compared with electronic occupation data. Active-duty and Reserve/Guard females differentially reported witnessing death or trauma and exposure to chemical or biological warfare, depleted uranium, or pesticides. Findings suggest that self-reported occupation can be used with a high degree of confidence. Occupational groups with higher odds of reporting military exposures of concern will be followed longitudinally through 2022 and prospectively compared using baseline and follow-up evaluations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Defense Center for Deployment Health Research, Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California 92186, USA. smith@nhrc.navy.mil
authors.forename: Tyler C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Isabel G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: Besa
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Tomoko I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Hooper
authors.forename: Margaret A K
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001694:Biological Warfare; D002618:Chemical Warfare; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010575:Pesticides; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014501:Uranium
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides; D014501:Uranium