More costs of the first Gulf War

More costs of the first gulf war.

The study by the VA contacted 11,441 Gulf War Respondents out of 15,000 targeted.

Male Gulf war respondents demonstrated 11.2% PTSD compared to 15.8% among females. Among 189 females reporting no sexual harassment or assault, the rate of PTSD was about 11%. Among the 116 females reporting sexual harassment, assault, or both, the PTSD rate was about 26%. Maybe it’s not a surprise that sexual predation would increase PTSD. That 116/336 or 34% of female veterans reported incidents, is a bit of a surprise, something which should have been in the abstract.

Annals of Epidemiology Volume 15, Issue 3 , March 2005, Pages 191-195
The Role of Sexual Assault on the Risk of PTSD among Gulf War Veterans
Han Kang DrPH, , Nancy Dalager MS, Clare Mahan PhD and Erick Ishii PhD From the Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC Received 11 December 2003; accepted 25 May 2004. Available online 6 August 2004.
A nested case–control analysis was conducted using the data collected in a population-based health survey of 30,000 Gulf War era veterans. A total of 1381 Gulf War veterans with current PTSD were compared with 10,060 Gulf veteran controls without PTSD for self-reported in-theater experiences of sexual harassment/assault and combat exposure.
…
The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for PTSD associated with a report of sexual assault was 5.41 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.19–9.17) in female veterans and 6.21 (95% CI, 2.26–17.04) in male veterans. The OR for PTSD associated with “high” combat exposure was also statistically significant (OR, 4.03 [95% CI, 1.97–8.23] for females; OR, 4.45 [95% CI, 3.54–5.60] for males).
Conclusion
Notwithstanding a possibility of recall bias of combat and sexual trauma, for both men and women, sexual trauma as well as combat exposure appear to be strong risk factors for PTSD.