Title: Cohort A479: Pre-Persian Gulf War Morbidity

Summary: Large numbers of Persian Gulf War veterans have complained of illnesses which have not been fully explained by extensive diagnostic workups. These have been characterized as "Persian Gulf Syndrome" or "mystery illness" by some and may well be stress related1. It is possible that the vast majority of these illnesses and similar conditions following previous conflicts2 occur in a relatively small proportion of the deployed population, that these individuals have life-long patterns of illness and health care seeking different from the majority of military members, and that markers for this elevated risk for developing "war syndromes" exist and have high positive predictive value. The exposed cohort contains two subgroups: those Persian Gulf War Army veterans registered with the Persian Gulf Health Registry (PGHR, n=1388) and those registered with the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program (CCEP, n=1198). The comparison group consists of 1,000 Persian Gulf War veterans not registered on either the PGHR or the CCEP. Preliminary evidence for a difference in hospitalization rates for ill-defined conditions was presented to the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board on 12/12/96 by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research investigators. This work resulted from a DOD and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) collaboration.

References:
Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses: Final Report (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, December 1996)

Hyams CH, Wignall FS, Roswell R. War syndromes and their evaluation: from the US Civil War to the Persian Gulf War. Ann Intern Med. 1996; 125:398-405.

Joseph SC and the CCEP Evaluation Team. A Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation of 20,000 Persian Gulf War Veterans. Military Medicine. 1997; 162: 149-155.

Keywords: Persian Gulf War; morbidity; war syndromes; unexplained illness

Cohort Characteristics: 3,586 total records

Data item	PGHR N=1388	CCEP N=1198	Comparison N=1000
Military service number:	100%	100%	100%
Social security number:	100%	100%	100%
Full name:	100%	100%	100%
Date of birth:	100%	100%	100%