Psychological Contributors to Respiratory Distress in Post-Deployment Veterans
Abstract
Since September 11, 2001 over 2.7 million service members have deployed in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom and have served combat tours in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. These Veterans commonly experienced complex environmental exposures including, but not limited to, exposure to burn pits. Burn pits are solid-waste disposal sites that have been employed by the military to eliminate refuse from military bases in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operations. Over 200,000 of these Veterans have registered with the Veterans Affairs Administrations (VA) Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry (AHOBPR) as part of an ongoing effort to examine, document, and understand the incidence of post-deployment illness in this population. Of note, nearly 50 percent of these Veterans have experienced respiratory distress or illness following deployment, which represents a substantial readiness, public health, and treatment challenge for the VA and Department of Defense. Previous studies have examined the role of environmental hazards in the etiology of these illnesses; however, few have examined the differential impact of psychological trauma and stress in exacerbating these respiratory symptoms. The present study examined the relative impact of environmental and psychological exposures on respiratory distress in post-deployment Veterans of conflicts in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Data were obtained from the AHOBPR program and survey database (N = 207,311) and include information about the Veterans deployment-related environmental exposures, combat exposure, emotional difficulties, and respiratory diagnoses. Multiple regressions and a likelihood ratio test were conducted to compare the predictive value of environmental factors and psychological factors on respiratory distress. The total effects of emotional difficulties on respiratory distress outperformed the total effects of all other individual variables.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 29, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1186111
Entities
People
- Murphy P. Danahy
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences