Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Respiratory Conditions Investigated for the Deployed

By David Loebsack
Health.mil

February 10, 2010 - A recent study published by DoD researchers in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan are at no increased risk for developing chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis or emphysema, as previously hypothesized. However, deployed troops returning home from OIF and OEF were found to suffer increased short-term respiratory symptoms such as persistent cough or shortness of breath.

Dr. Besa Smith from the Defense Center for Deployment Health Research located at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, led the study in order to examine newly reported respiratory conditions in military personnel.

“We’re in the driver seat to follow this. It’s reassuring that we did not see increased rates of asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, but we will continue to follow these conditions in the event that there wasn’t enough time for them to develop,” said Smith.

Participants were from the Millennium Cohort Study, a 21-year longitudinal research initiative designed to investigate long-term health consequences related to military service.

Two questionnaires were used to investigate respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma – a baseline survey conducted between 2001 and 2003, and a follow-up survey conducted between 2004 and 2006. More than 55,000 service members participated in both survey assessments.

Participants who deployed reported a four percent higher rate of newly reported, short-term respiratory symptoms; 14 percent of deployed personnel reported new symptoms while 10 percent of non-deployed personnel reported new symptoms. Although the difference may not seem like much, it is statistically significant, and compelling considering that symptoms only arose in Army and Marine Corps personnel. Findings were not significant among Navy and Air Force personnel.

This could be an indication that a correlation exists between these symptoms and land-based deployments. Other factors were also associated with the increase in short-term respiratory symptoms. Among them, being male, being a consistent smoker, having a long, land-based deployment, and deploying to a location within Iraq were the strongest.

Although the research team has come to some groundbreaking discoveries, according to Smith, the best is yet to come. In the coming months, further survey data followed over an additional three years and new data on air pollutants found at operating bases throughout OIF and OEF will be analyzed, conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, and the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Once these particulate matter and burn pit data sets are integrated into the study, researchers will have more answers. But even though the data haven’t been incorporated yet, Smith’s current research seems to say that deployment itself is not causing these symptoms, but that specific exposures in theatre are more likely responsible for the associations found.

Until the new data are released, scientists on Smith’s team are continuing to analyze current and new information they have.

“This is the first time in our military history that we’re able to prospectively assess – at a population level – differences in health outcomes, and not only active-duty service members, but we can also look at reserve and National Guard as well,” said Dr. Tyler Smith, principal investigator for the Millennium Cohort Study. “We have the numbers to do this prospective assessment… and we can control for not only past smoking, but for chronic smoking, and new uptake of smoking, which is obviously associated with respiratory illnesses, and we can do this with personnel no longer in service…That’s a big community that we weren’t able to say anything about after the first Gulf War.”

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