Report

The Health of Former Prisoners of War: Results from the Medical Examination Survey of Former POWs of World War II and the Korean Conflict

Released:: January 1, 1992
Type:: Epidemiological Report
Topic(s):: Biomedical and Health Research, Public Health, Select Populations and Health Disparities, Veterans Health
Board(s):: Medical Follow-Up Agency

The Institute of Medicine conducted a medical examination survey of former prisoners of war (POWs) of World War II (WWII) and the Korean conflict. This survey, which is part of a longitudinal follow-up study begun shortly after WWII, was the first to be based on medical examinations as well as on questionnaires and records for POWs and controls. The survey focuses solely on morbidity; because no deliberate efforts were made to collect complete, cause-specific mortality data, only brief anecdotal mortality information is presented. The goal of the research was to gather and analyze medical examination information from former POWs and comparable controls.

In summary, excepting psychiatric illness, this report shows little evidence of wide spread ill health among former prisoners of war compared with their non-POW veteran counterparts. Nevertheless, analyses of the associations between prison camp factors and subsequent disease prevalence have uncovered a number of medical conditions that can be posited as aftereffects of military captivity.