Prospective Examination of Early Associations of Iraq War Zone Deployment, Combat Severity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder with New Incident Medical Diagnoses
Abstract
War zone deployment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been associated with morbidity and mortality decades later. Less is known about the associations between these variables and the early emergence of medical disorders in war zone veterans. This prospective study of 862 U.S. Army soldiers (n = 569 deployed; n = 293 nondeployed) examined: (a) associations between Iraq War deployment status (deployed vs. nondeployed) and new medical diagnoses that emerged within six months after return from Iraq among all participants; and (b) associations between combat severity and PTSD symptoms, and new postdeployment medical diagnoses that emerged within 12 months after return from Iraq within deployed participants. New medical diagnoses were abstracted from diagnostic codes associated with clinical outpatient visits recorded within the Department of Defense Standard Ambulatory Data Record database. Combat severity was measured with the Combat Experiences module of the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory, and postdeployment posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity was measured using the PTSD Checklist–Civilian. Neither deployment nor combat severity was associated with new medical diagnoses. However, among deployed soldiers, more severe PTSD symptoms were associated with increased risk for a new medical disorder diagnosis; every 10‐point increase in PTSD symptoms increased odds of a new diagnosis by nearly 20% (odds ratio = 1.20). Results suggest that PTSD symptoms are associated with early morbidity in Iraq War veterans.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/jts.22264
Entities
People
- Avron Spiro Iii
- Brian P Marx
- Erin W. Ulloa
- Jennifer J. Vasterling
- Karen H. Seal
- Kevin Brailey
- Mary Alice Mills
- Susan P. Proctor
Organizations
- Boston University
- National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- San Francisco VA Health Care System
- United States Army Medical Research and Development Command
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
- University of California, San Francisco
- University of Pennsylvania
- VA Boston Healthcare System
- Veterans Health Administration