title: Military service, exposure to trauma, and health in older adulthood: an analysis of northern Vietnamese survivors of the Vietnam War.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to better understand the association between early life exposure to war and trauma and older adult health status in a developing setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data of 405 Vietnamese men and women in 1 northern Vietnam commune who entered early adulthood during the Vietnam War and who are now entering late adulthood (i.e., ages 55 years and older in 2010).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The toll of war's trauma in the aging northern Vietnamese population was perceptible in the association between exposure to war trauma and various measures of physical health, including negative self-reported health and somatic symptoms. Killing another person and being exposed to toxic substances in warfare was especially detrimental to health in older adulthood. War traumas were likely implicated more strongly as determinants of late adulthood health in men than in women. The weak association between trauma exposure and reported depressive symptoms raised questions about measuring mental health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Military service and war trauma were important determinants of older adult health beyond the US context, given the widespread waging of war and concentration of recent armed conflicts within developing societies.
authors.affiliation: Kim Korinek is with the Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan is with the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Korinek
authors.forename: Bussarawan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Teerawichitchainan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology; D047829:Vietnam Conflict