Military Service and Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Determine whether military employment is associated with the risk of developing Parkinson s disease (PD). Scope: Two large population-based case-control studies of PD that were carried out in a health maintenance organization. Major findings: When compared to the men who had never served in the military, men that served in the military during peacetime but never during a conflict were not at increased risk of PD. However, the risk of PD was significantly increased among men who were deployed during one or more wars (adjusted OR= 1.8, 95% CI 1.2-2.8; p<0.01). The risk of PD was increased among men who were deployed during World II (OR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.6, p<0.005) or Viet Nam (OR = 2.6, 95% CI 0.9-7.13, p<0.07), but not among men who served during those time periods who were not deployed. No increased risk of PD was observed among men who were in the military at the time of the Korean conflict, either among the deployed or the non-deployed. Significance: Identifying the military occupations and exposures that are associated with a higher risk of PD could lead to important etiologic clues to this disabling neurodegenerative disease.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA583477

Entities

People

  • Lorene M Nelson

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Programs
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Health
  • Health Maintenance Organizations
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Education
  • Neurodegeneration
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Parkinson'S Disease
  • Patents
  • Peacetime
  • Public Health
  • Risk
  • War

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Analytical Mechanics
  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Organizational Psychology.