2020

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   Gulf-War-Veterans-Health-Studies.pdf 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