1. IDENTIFICATION & BASIC DESCRIPTION
Cohort name
  The Australian Gulf War Veterans’ Health Study cohort
Country
 
  • Australia
Name
  Malcolm Sim
Institution
  Moansh University
Email
  Malcolm.Sim@monash.edu
Personal website
  https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/malcolm-sim
Do you want to add another Principal Investigator of the Cohort
 
  • Add another Principal Investigator of the cohort
Name
  Helen Kelsall
Institution
  Moansh University
Email
  Helen.Kelsall@monash.edu
Personal website
  https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/helen-kelsall/projects/
Website
 
  • https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/coeh/research/gwfollowup
  • https://www.dva.gov.au/documents-and-publications/australian-gulf-war-veterans-health-study
Name of committee
  Monash University Ethics Committee
Upload files
 
Or provide website
 
  • https://www.dva.gov.au/documents-and-publications/australian-gulf-war-veterans-health-study
Contact Principal Investigator (name)
  Prof Malcolm Sim/Dr Helen Kelsall
Main aim of cohort, please briefly describe the main objectives of the cohort
  The Gulf War veterans’ Health Studies aimed to assess the longer term physical, psychological and social health and well-being of Gulf War veterans and the comparison group members.
Study design (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Retrospective cohort
Source population (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Industry / occupation-based
Comparators (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Internal study population
Inclusion criteria
  The original cohort consisted of the entire deployed group of Australian veterans of the Gulf War and a comparison group of members. Australian Gulf War veterans were defined as Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who deployed in support of the Gulf War during the period 2 August 1990 to 4 September 1991 as part of ADF Operation Ozone or Operation Damask, or with overseas forces as part of Operations Desert Shield or Desert Storm. Comparison group members were randomly drawn from a population of ADF personnel who were in operational units at the time of the Gulf War but who were not deployed to that conflict; the comparison group was frequency matched to the Gulf War veterans’ group by age, sex, rank category, service branch, two rank categories for Army personnel and two task categories for Air force personnel.
Enrollment
  Completed
Age range at entry (main cohort)
 
Minimum Maximum Mean
<40 >55
Men at enrollment
  4700
Women at enrollment
  95
2. OUTCOME FOLLOW-UP
Type of data for outcome follow-up (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Active (contact with participants)
Active (contact with participants) (specify)
 
  • The follow-up includes data collection on postal questionnaire, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI V.2.1) or psychological disorders administered over the phone by trained interviewers, additional review of deployment-related documentation maintained by the ADF and linkage to Medicare and Department of Vaterans Affairs health databases.
First follow-up period (provide year)
  2011
Last follow-up period (provide year)
  2012
Number of follow-ups after baseline (provide number)
  1390
Participation at last follow-up (if known)
  54
Comments
  The participation rates achieved at follow-up were 54% for the Gulf War veterans and 47% for the comparison group.
3. OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES
Source of exposure data collected (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Questionnaire, Personal (Self-reporting or interview)
  • Job-employment records
Occupational history/time frame
  Lifetime
Occupational coding performed
  No
Methods for exposure assessment (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Self-report
Main categories
 
  • Psychosocial domains
Comments
  The establishment of the cohort aimed to facilitate both cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations of the health outcome of Australian Gulf War veterans and a military comparison group. Therefore, the cohort was not aimed to assess exposures related to the workplace.
4. OUTCOMES EVALUATED
Baseline - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 
  • Biomarker (specify)
  • Questionnaire, individual (self-recording or interview)
Specify: Biomarker
  Blood and Urine sample collected
Outcome type (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Mortality
Diagnostic groups based on ICD10
 
  • F Mental disorders
  • J Respiratory disease
  • O+P Pregnancy and labour
  • Other (specify)
Other (specify)
  General health, physical examination, Demographics, Fatigue, pain, injuries, quality of life, financial strain, homelessness, sleep patterns, smoking, alcohol, PTSD
5. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES & ANALYSIS
Biological samples collected
 
  • Blood
  • Urine
6. Other Information
 
  • Alcohol
  • Demographics
  • Medical history
  • Personality
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Smoking
Possibility for linkage to data registries/data enrichment via data linkage
 
  • Cancer incidence
  • Mortality register