Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study

NCT02825602 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: 15-12
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 24,306
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study (VE-HEROeS) is a national study on the health and well-being of Vietnam Veterans, including Blue Water Navy Veterans, as well as Veterans who served elsewhere during the Vietnam Era (1961-1975), and similarly aged U.S. residents who never served in the military. The investigators will invite approximately 43,000 Vietnam and Vietnam Era Veterans, and approximately 11,000 members of the general U.S. population to participate in VE-HEROeS. These individuals are scientifically selected to participate; the study is not able to accept volunteers. All participants in VE-HEROeS will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on their military service, general health, age-related conditions, health care use, and the health experiences of their children and grandchildren. A smaller group will be asked to provide the investigators with access to some of their medical records. Topics of special focus for the study include cognition, hepatitis C infection, and neurologic conditions.

Conditions

Aging; Combat Disorders

Keywords

Vietnam veteran; aging; health; War Injury; Conventional Warfare; Toxic Effect; Chemical

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Overall Health

  Overall health will be measured by the mean physical component summary score (PCS) and the mean mental component score (MCS) of the Short Form 8 (SF-8) compared across the four groups. Mean scores on the 8 health concepts measured by the SF-8 (physical functioning, role limitations due to physical functioning, bodily pain, general health, energy/fatigue, social functioning, role limitations due to emotional problems, and psychological distress/well being) will also be compared. Adjustments may be made for age, gender, and prevalent co-morbidities.

  Past 4 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Conditions of concern

  Health history assessed at the time of survey (Day 1)

Other Outcomes (2)

• Self-identification of Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans

  Navy service exclusively in the deep offshore waters of Vietnam between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975.

• Health of offspring

  Health history assessed at the time of survey (Day 1)

Study Arms (4)

Vietnam War Theater Veterans

Vietnam War Theater Veterans are defined for this protocol as those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces on the ground, in the air, or on the inland waters of Vietnam, Cambodia, and/or Laos between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975, inclusive. The investigators based this definition on legal dates of service set forth in 38 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 3.2 - Periods of war, but broadened the definition of sites of military service that constituted war zones based on written historical accounts and input from Vietnam Veterans.

Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans

Blue Water Navy Veterans are defined as Veterans who served aboard deep-water naval vessels in waters offshore North or South Vietnam between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975 and who never served ashore or on inland waterways of Vietnam.

Vietnam era Veterans

Vietnam era Veterans served in locations around the world OTHER than on the ground, in the air, or on the inland waters of Vietnam, Cambodia, and/or Laos or aboard deep-water naval vessels in waters offshore North or South Vietnam between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975.

Non-military U.S. public

Non-military U.S. public are individuals who were born before 1958, never served in the U.S. military, and are age- and gender-matched (by the study investigators) to Vietnam War Theater Veterans.

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 58 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Veterans: We will obtain a stratified random sample of 45,067 Veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs' United States Veterans Eligibility Trends \& Statistics (USVETS) database which we believe to be the most complete database of U.S. military Veterans in existence. Stratification will be on period of service within the Vietnam era: 1961-1964 or 1965-1975. We will remove decedents and those without a current US postal address from the sample. U.S. public: The U.S. public general population comparison sample will be an age- and gender-matched sample of living non-Veteran members of the U.S. public born before 1958.

You may qualify if:

• invited to participate through investigators' random sample selection process
• able to provide informed consent
• have a postal address in the U.S. or its territories

You may not qualify if:

• individuals who are incarcerated
• individuals who are unable to complete the survey even with assistance because of cognitive or physical limitations.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Veteran Affairs Office of Patient Care Services: lead

Study Sites (1)

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/Epidemiology Program

Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20420, United States

Location

Related Publications (16)

• Health status of Vietnam veterans. II. Physical Health. The Centers for Disease Control Vietnam Experience Study. JAMA. 1988 May 13;259(18):2708-14.

  PMID: 2833631 BACKGROUND

• Health status of Vietnam veterans. I. Psychosocial characteristics. The Centers for Disease Control Vietnam Experience Study. JAMA. 1988 May 13;259(18):2701-7.

  PMID: 2833630 BACKGROUND

• Health status of Vietnam veterans. III. Reproductive outcomes and child health. The Centers for Disease Control Vietnam Experience Study. JAMA. 1988 May 13;259(18):2715-9.

  PMID: 2833632 BACKGROUND

• Kulka RA, Schlenger WE, Fairbank JA, Hough RL, Jordan BK, Marmar CR, et al. Trauma and the Vietnam War Generation. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers; 1990

  BACKGROUND

• Institute of Medicine (US) Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides. Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1994. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236356/

  PMID: 25144022 BACKGROUND

• Dominitz JA, Boyko EJ, Koepsell TD, Heagerty PJ, Maynard C, Sporleder JL, Stenhouse A, Kling MA, Hrushesky W, Zeilman C, Sontag S, Shah N, Ona F, Anand B, Subik M, Imperiale TF, Nakhle S, Ho SB, Bini EJ, Lockhart B, Ahmad J, Sasaki A, van der Linden B, Toro D, Martinez-Souss J, Huilgol V, Eisen S, Young KA. Elevated prevalence of hepatitis C infection in users of United States veterans medical centers. Hepatology. 2005 Jan;41(1):88-96. doi: 10.1002/hep.20502.

  PMID: 15619249 BACKGROUND

• Raymont V, Salazar AM, Krueger F, Grafman J. "Studying injured minds" - the Vietnam head injury study and 40 years of brain injury research. Front Neurol. 2011 Mar 28;2:15. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2011.00015. eCollection 2011.

  PMID: 21625624 BACKGROUND

• Bullman TA, Kang HK. Posttraumatic stress disorder and the risk of traumatic deaths among Vietnam veterans. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1994 Nov;182(11):604-10. doi: 10.1097/00005053-199411000-00002.

  PMID: 7964667 BACKGROUND

• Marmar CR, Schlenger W, Henn-Haase C, Qian M, Purchia E, Li M, Corry N, Williams CS, Ho CL, Horesh D, Karstoft KI, Shalev A, Kulka RA. Course of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 40 Years After the Vietnam War: Findings From the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015 Sep;72(9):875-81. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0803.

  PMID: 26201054 BACKGROUND

• Manikkam M, Tracey R, Guerrero-Bosagna C, Skinner MK. Dioxin (TCDD) induces epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult onset disease and sperm epimutations. PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e46249. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046249. Epub 2012 Sep 26.

  PMID: 23049995 BACKGROUND

• The association of selected cancers with service in the US military in Vietnam. III. Hodgkin's disease, nasal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and primary liver cancer. The Selected Cancers Cooperative Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1990 Dec;150(12):2495-505. doi: 10.1001/archinte.150.12.2495.

  PMID: 2244766 BACKGROUND

• The association of selected cancers with service in the US military in Vietnam. I. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The Selected Cancers Cooperative Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1990 Dec;150(12):2473-83.

  PMID: 2244764 BACKGROUND

• The association of selected cancers with service in the US military in Vietnam. II. Soft-tissue and other sarcomas. The Selected Cancers Cooperative Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1990 Dec;150(12):2485-92.

  PMID: 2244765 BACKGROUND

• Kang HK, Cypel Y, Kilbourne AM, Magruder KM, Serpi T, Collins JF, Frayne SM, Furey J, Huang GD, Kimerling R, Reinhard MJ, Schumacher K, Spiro A 3rd. HealthViEWS: mortality study of female US Vietnam era veterans, 1965-2010. Am J Epidemiol. 2014 Mar 15;179(6):721-30. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwt319. Epub 2014 Jan 30.

  PMID: 24488510 BACKGROUND

• Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209599/

  PMID: 24983057 BACKGROUND

• Blosnich JR, Hilgeman MM, Cypel YS, Akhtar FZ, Fried D, Ishii EK, Schneiderman A, Davey VJ. Potentially traumatic events and health among lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual Vietnam veterans: Results from the Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational study. Psychol Trauma. 2022 May;14(4):568-577. doi: 10.1037/tra0001025. Epub 2021 Jun 17.

  PMID: 34138613 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Combat Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Victoria J Davey, PhD, MPH

  US Department of Veterans Affairs

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: CROSS SECTIONAL
• Sponsor Type: FED
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Senior Investigator, Epidemiology Program

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 13, 2016
• First Posted: July 7, 2016
• Study Start: July 1, 2016
• Primary Completion: March 31, 2017
• Study Completion: December 1, 2019
• Last Updated: April 24, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share

Locations

US (1)