The health status of Gulf War veterans: Lessons learned from the Department of Veterans Affairs health registry

Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics and postwar health s tatus of U,S, Gulf War Veterans who participated in the Department of Veter ans Affairs health examination registry program. Design: Case records of 52 ,835 veterans who participated in a standardized health examination program were reviewed. Setting: Participants volunteered for physical examinations at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical treatment facility from August 1992 to September 1996. Subjects: U.S, Gulf War veterans deployed to south west Asia between August 1990 and 1996. Main Outcome Measure: Demographic, military, symptom, and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revi sion, Clinical Modification, diagnostic categories. Results: A wide variety of symptoms and diagnoses were reported without apparent internal variatio n by military characteristics (branch and service component), The frequency of symptoms (fatigue, skin rash, headache, muscle and joint pain, and memo ry loss) reported increased over time, whereas the proportion of individual s with physician-diagnosed illnesses remained fairly constant, No single ca tegory of disease increased or decreased substantially over time. Conclusio ns: Veterans have experienced a wide variety of health problems since their Gulf War service. These problems, in aggregate, are different from what ha s been seen in other armed conflicts. The Department of Veterans Affairs re gistry is a very large case series and has failed to identify a single, uni que syndrome or new illness after Gulf War service, An epidemiologic study would better define the prevalence of specific symptoms and medical conditi ons among Gulf War veterans and to what extent any of the conditions identi fied are associated with Gulf War military service, The knowledge provided by such studies would be important to development of preventive measures an d future deployment medical surveillance planning.