Reproductive health of male Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War

Helen L Kelsall,Malcolm R Sim,Jillian F Ikin,Andrew B Forbes,Dean P Mckenzie,Deborah C Glass,Peter Ittak

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-79

Abstract

BackgroundSince the 1991 Gulf War concerns have been raised about the effects of deployment to the Gulf War on veterans' health. Studies of the reproductive health of Gulf War veterans have reported varied findings.MethodsWe undertook a cross-sectional study of male Australian Gulf War veterans (n = 1,424) and a randomly sampled military comparison group (n = 1,548). The study was conducted from August 2000 to April 2002. A postal questionnaire included questions about difficulties achieving pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes including live births, stillbirths, miscarriages and terminations; and for all live births gestation, birth weight, sex, and any cancers, birth defects, chromosomal abnormalities or serious health problems.ResultsMale Gulf War veterans reported slightly increased risk of fertility difficulties following the Gulf War (odds ratio [OR] 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0–1.8), but were more successful at subsequently fathering a child (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.3–2.6). The study groups reported similar rates of pregnancies and live births. There was no increased risk in veterans of miscarriage, stillbirth, or terminations. Children of male Gulf War veterans born after the period of the Gulf War were not at greater risk of being born prematurely, having a low birth weight, or having a birth defect or chromosomal abnormality (OR 1.0; 95% CI 0.6–1.6). The numbers of cancers and deaths in children were too small to draw any firm conclusions.ConclusionThe results of this study do not show an increased risk of adverse reproductive outcome in Australian male Gulf War veterans.

Highlights

Since the 1991 Gulf War concerns have been raised about the effects of deployment to the Gulf War on veterans' health
No increase in the overall risk of birth defects in the offspring of Gulf War veterans was found in a retrospective study of live births in US military hospitals [6], nor in a study that ascertained births outside military hospitals and which investigated defects developing in the first year of life [5,8]
The 1170 and 1272 live births were reported by 684 veterans (48%) and 732 comparison group subjects (47%) respectively

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1991 Gulf War concerns have been raised about the effects of deployment to the Gulf War on veterans' health. Studies of the reproductive health of Gulf War veterans have reported varied findings. The findings of studies investigating reproductive health and the risk of reported birth defects [1,2,3,4] and specific types of (page number not for citation purposes). Some adverse reproductive outcomes have been reported more commonly by US, UK and Canadian veterans compared with non-Gulf comparison groups, including miscarriages [1,2,3] and birth defects [1,2,3,7]. The small numbers of cases and wide confidence intervals indicated that the three-fold increased risk of Goldenhar Syndrome in infants born to US Gulf War veterans compared with non-deployed military personnel [7] should be interpreted with caution

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