Vietnam Veterans Health Study 1998

Tabular Results of the Male Health Study

These results have been extracted from the publication version of Morbidity of Vietnam Veterans: A Study of the Health of Australia's Vietnam Veteran Community Volume I Survey and Community Comparison Outcomes Male Vietnam Veterans

Part A - Medical History

Question A1 - Have you suffered from any of the following medical conditions which you feel may be related to your service in Vietnam?

Question	Condition	Reported By Veterans		Expected Number [some multiple source]	Expected Range [some multiple sources]
		Number	%age		From	To
A1.1	Hearing or Ear Problems	22,030	55%	10161	9938	10384
A1.2	Haemorrhoids	11,070	28%	2107	1890	2325
A1.3	Panic Attacks	12068	30%	No comparable data
A1.4	Migraine	6887	17%	489 4668 2777	173 4379 2777	608 4942 11069
A1.5	Anxiety Disorders	16388	41%	12478	2415	13484
A1.6	Depression	17960	45%	14249	4025	15295
A1.7	Alcohol and Drug Abuse	14411	36%	No comparable data
A1.8	Insomnia and Sleep Disturbance	20642	52%	20931 649	5635 20931	496 801

Question A2 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have any of the following medical conditions?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number [some multiple source]	Expected Range [some multiple sources]
		Number	%age		From	To
A2.1	Gastric Reflux	12202	30%	No comparable data
A2.2	Ulcer (Stomach)	4732	12%	Aggregated	See Below
A2.3	Ulcer (Duodenal)	3114	8%	3089	2872	3306
A2.5	Post Traumatic Stress Disorder	12504	31%	3059	1483	4635
A2.6	High Blood Pressure	13790	34%	9834 7335 12992	7855 7086 12744	11813 7521 13718
A2.7	Allergies	8451	21%	9094	8155	1033
A2.8	Asthma	3803	10%	2689	2472	2906
A2.9	Any other respiratory disorders	6489	16%
A2.10	Not suffered from any of these	11485	29%

Questions A3 and A4 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have cancer?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
A3.0	Told that they have cancer	10000	25%	No comparable data

A4.1	Melanoma	2689	7%	380	342	418
A4.2	Other Skin Cancers (BCC or SCC)	6936	17%	No comparable data
A4.3	Cancer of the Head and Neck	859	2%	No comparable data
A4.4	Leukaemia	64	<1%	26	16	36
A4.5	Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma	137	<1%	48	34	62
A4.6	Soft Tissue Sarcoma	398	1%	27	17	37
A4.7	Cancer of the Colon	405	1%	117	96	138
A4.8	Male Breast Cancer	51	<1%	3	0	6
A4.9	Cancer of the Testis	151	<1%	110	89	131
A4.10	Cancer of the Eye	96	<1%	11	4	18
A4.11	Lung Cancer	120	<1%	65	49	89
A4.12	Cancer of the Prostate	428	1%	147	123	171
A4.13	Other cancers			No comparable data

Question A5 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have non-cancerous disease of the prostate?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
A5.0	Told that they have non-cancerous disease of the prostate	2970	7%	9141	6766	1126

Question A6 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have diabetes?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
A6.0	Told that they have diabetes	2391	6%	1780	1558	2003

Question A7 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have any of the following medical conditions?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
A7.1	Hepatitis (any)	1603	4%	No comparable data
A7.2	Malaria	3294	8%		907	1100
A7.3	Strongyloides Worm Infection	636	2%	No comparable data
A7.4	Motor Neurone Disease	128	<1%	2	1	2
A7.5	Multiple Sclerosis	84	<1%	19	17	22
A7.6	Ischaemic Heart Disease	5965	15%	3236	2732	3739
A7.7	Not suffered from any of these		75%

Question A8 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you ever been told by a Doctor that you have a severe of persistent non-cancerous skin condition?

This table not yet available

Question A9 - What kind of skin condition(s)?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number [some multiple source]	Expected Range [some multiple sources]
		Number	%age		From	To
A9.1 & A9.2	Dermatitis Eczema	7530 2567	19% 6%	1013	660	1367
A9.3 to A9.8	Acne/Rosacea Psoriasis Tinea Other Skin Conditions	1076 3179 8172	3% 8% 20%	No comparable data 1288 473 No comparable data Wide range responses	n/a 410 256 n/a	n/a 1972 690 n/a

Question A10 - Have you been told by a Doctor that you have any other major illness, not listed above, or suffered any major injuries (including war wounds) that you feel are related to your service in Vietnam?

Question A11 - Please specify illness/injuries suffered.

Some 29% of veterans reported experiencing other major illnesses and injuries, however these cannot be compared with community data.

Part B - Marital History

Question B1 - What is your current marital status?

Question B2 - How many times have you been married or lived in a de facto relationship?

Marital Status	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number
	Number	%age
Married	32647	82%	30073
Separated	1719	4%	1752
Divorced	3089	8%	3980
Widowed	577	1%	704
Never Married	1483	4%	3097

Part C - Health of Partner(s)

Question C1 - Do you consider that your service in Vietnam, or your health problems as a consequence, have caused any serious adverse effect to the health of your current or past partner(s)?

36% felt that this was true.

Question C2 - Have any of your partners (current or past) suffered health problems (either physical or psychological) that you feel may be related to your service in Vietnam,?

Some 40% of veterans answered 'YES' to this question, 56% answered 'NO' and 4% did not respond.

Question C3 - Have any of your partners (current or past) suffered from any of the following medical conditions that you feel may be related to your service in Vietnam?

Condition	Percentage of respondents n=38 578
Stress	40
Anxiety	34
Depression	30
Insomnia/Sleep Disturbance	23
Migraine	15
High Blood Pressure	11
Alcohol/Drug Overuse	8

Question C4 - Have they required treatment for any of these problems?

Some 75% of veterans reported that their partner(s) required treatment for conditions referred to in question C3.

Part D - Children

Question D1 - At any time since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you and a partner ever tried for more than 12 months to conceive a child without success?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D1	Inability to conceive	8270	21%	5500	5285	5622

Question D2 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have any pregnancies where you were the natural father ended with a stillbirth, miscarriage or termination?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D2.1	Stillbirths	2149	5%	No comparative data
D2.2	Miscarriages	8614	22%	No comparative data
D2.3	Terminations	2010	5%	No comparative data

Question D3 -Have you ever fathered any children?

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D3	Fathered children	34872	87%	36242	34922	36620

Question D4 - Please indicate year of birth and sex of each of these children below?

Survey findings indicated that the greatest number of children were born between 1973 and 1978. Of these children, 15,184 were male and 14,605 were females.

Question D6 - Have any of those children listed in D5 ever been diagnosed as having:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D6.1	Sight problems not correctable by spectacles	2376	8%		4690	4962
D6.2	Long term hearing or ear problems	3068	10%	23488	19386	23733

Question D7/D8 - Have any of those children listed in D5 ever been diagnosed as having/having at birth:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D7.1	Spina Bifida	353	1%	33	22	44
D7.2	Anencephaly	47	<1%	16	8	24
D7.3	Down's Syndrome	138	<1%	92	73	111
D7.4	Tracheosophageal Fistula	111	<1%	23	14	32
D7.5	Cleft Lip or Palate	286	<1%	64	48	80
D7.6	Absent Body Parts	381	1%	34	23	45
D7.7	Extra Body Parts	341	1%	Not available
D7.8	Other Abnormalities	3922	13%	888	830	946

Question D9 - Have any of those children listed in D5 ever been diagnosed by a Doctor as having:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D9.1	Leukaemia	77	<1%	57	42	72
D9.2	Wilm's Tumour	45	<1%	7	2	12
D9.3	Tumour of the Nervous System	103	<1%	48	34	62
D9.4	Total number of children with other cancers	716	101 per 10000 children	333	297	369

Question D10 - Have any of those children listed in D5 ever suffered from any other major illness?

Data not available at this time. No conclusions have been drawn.

Question D11 - Now, thinking about all your children (born at any time), have any of them died due to the following causes:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D11.1	Illness	841	2%	805	749	861
D11.2	Suicide	231	1%	75	58	92
D11.3	Accident/Other Causes	836	2%	365	328	402

Question D12 - Have any of your children (born at any time) ever been diagnosed by a Doctor as having:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number	Expected Range
		Number	%age		From	To
D12.1	Psychiatric problems	3774	11%	No comparable data
D12.2	Anxiety disorders	5449	16%	No comparable data

Part E - General

Question E1 - In general, would you say that your health is:

Question	Condition	Reported by Veterans		Expected Number
		Number	%age
E1.1	Excellent	1953	5%	6959
E1.2	Very Good	5732	14%	11926
E1.3	Good	11647	29%	12234
E1.4	Fair	13612	34%	6130
E1.5	Poor	6474	16%	2273

The remaining questions in this part dealt with general medical or welfare concerns, type of service, unit, and age.