Tabular Results of the Female 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 II Survey and Community Comparison Outcomes Female 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 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 A3 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you been told by a Doctor that you have any of the following conditions?

Question A4 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam have you been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?

Question A5 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam have you had a hysterectomy?

Question A6 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam have you been told by a doctor that you have cancer?

Question A7 - What type of cancer?

Question A8 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you been told by a doctor that you have any of the following non-cancerous problems?

Question A9 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam have you been told by a doctor that you are suffering from a severe or persistent non-cancerous skin condition?

Question A10 - What kind of skin condition(s)?

Question A11 - 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 A12 - Please specify illness/injuries suffered.

46 or 23% 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?

* This finding is not unexpected, given the problems in locating women who subsequently married (and presumably changed their surnames).

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)?

149 responded, of whome 13% 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,?

154 veterans responded to this question.  25, or some 14% of veterans answered 'YES' to this question.

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?

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

23 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?

[Note - given that 34% of all female veterans surveyed reported never having been married or in a de facto relationship, this response may require further analysis

Question D2 - Since your first day of service in Vietnam, have you had any of the following.

Question D3 -Have you ever given birth to any children (live births only)?

[Again, because of the high percentage of unmarried women in the study, this is to be expected - CMT]

Question D4 - How many children have you had that were conceived since your first day of service in Vietnam (live births only)?

[See note above]

Question D5 - Please indicate year of birth and sex of each of these children.

The responses indicated that 54% of children were male, and 46% were female, however this is not statistically significant given the number of respondents.   The median age at which women gave birth was 33 years, the median year of birth was 1974, and the median age of the children was 23 when the survey was conducted.

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

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

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

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

Of the 100 female veterans who had given birth since Vietnam, 28 (28%) reported that at least one of their children suffered from another major illness.  As the number reported refers to the women rather than specific illness among their children, no community comparisons can be drawn.

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

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

Part E - General

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

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