The health of Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War: factor analysis of self-reported symptoms
-
Altmetric Citations
Forbes, A B; McKenzie, D P; Mackinnon, A J; Kelsall, H L; McFarlane, A C; Ikin, J F; Glass, D C; Sim, M R
Description
BACKGROUND A recent report showed that Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War displayed a greater prevalence of a multitude of self-reported symptoms than a randomly sampled comparison group of military personnel who were eligible for deployment but were not deployed to the Gulf. AIMS To investigate whether the pattern, rather than frequency, of symptom reporting in these Australian Gulf War veterans differed from that of the comparison group personnel. METHODS Factor analysis was used to...[Show more]
dc.contributor.author | Forbes, A B | |
---|---|---|
dc.contributor.author | McKenzie, D P | |
dc.contributor.author | Mackinnon, A J | |
dc.contributor.author | Kelsall, H L | |
dc.contributor.author | McFarlane, A C | |
dc.contributor.author | Ikin, J F | |
dc.contributor.author | Glass, D C | |
dc.contributor.author | Sim, M R | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2015-12-21T04:39:34Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1351-0711 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1885/95145 | |
dc.description.abstract | BACKGROUND A recent report showed that Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War displayed a greater prevalence of a multitude of self-reported symptoms than a randomly sampled comparison group of military personnel who were eligible for deployment but were not deployed to the Gulf. AIMS To investigate whether the pattern, rather than frequency, of symptom reporting in these Australian Gulf War veterans differed from that of the comparison group personnel. METHODS Factor analysis was used to determine whether the co-occurrence of 62 symptoms in 1322 male Gulf War veterans can be explained by a number of underlying dimensions, called factors. The methodology was also applied to 1459 male comparison group subjects and the factor solutions of the two groups were compared. RESULTS For the Gulf War veterans, a three factor solution displayed replicability and construct validity. The three factors were labelled as psycho-physiological distress, somatic distress, and arthro-neuromuscular distress, and were broadly similar to those described in previous studies of Gulf War veterans. A concordant three factor solution was also found for the comparison group subjects, with strong convergence of the factor loadings and factor scores across the two groups being displayed. CONCLUSION Results did not display evidence of a unique pattern of self-reported symptoms among Gulf War veterans. Results also indicated that the differences between the groups lie in the degrees of expression of the three underlying factors, consistent with the well documented evidence of increased self-reported symptom prevalence in Gulf War veterans. | |
dc.description.sponsorship | The study was financially supported by the Australian Government–Department of Veterans’ Affairs. | |
dc.publisher | BMJ Publishing Group | |
dc.rights | Copyright the authors | |
dc.source | Occupational and Environmental Medicine | |
dc.subject | adult | |
dc.subject | australia | |
dc.subject | factor analysis, statistical | |
dc.subject | humans | |
dc.subject | male | |
dc.subject | occupational diseases | |
dc.subject | occupational exposure | |
dc.subject | persian gulf syndrome | |
dc.subject | prevalence | |
dc.subject | reproducibility of results | |
dc.subject | war | |
dc.subject | gulf war | |
dc.subject | veterans | |
dc.title | The health of Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War: factor analysis of self-reported symptoms | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
local.description.notes | Imported from ARIES | |
local.identifier.citationvolume | 61 | |
dc.date.issued | 2004 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 111714 | |
local.identifier.ariespublication | u4105084xPUB142 | |
local.type.status | Published Version | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Forbes, A.B., Monash University, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | McKenzie, D.P., Monash University, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Mackinnon, Andrew, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, CMBE Research School of Population Health, National Institute for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Kelsall, H.L., Monash University, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | McFarlane, Alexander C, University of Adelaide, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Ikin, J.F., Monash University, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Glass, D C, Monash University, Australia | |
local.contributor.affiliation | Sim, Malcolm R, Monash University, Australia | |
local.description.embargo | 2054-12-21 | |
local.identifier.essn | 1470-7926 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.issue | 12 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage | 1014 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage | 1020 | |
local.identifier.doi | 10.1136/oem.2003.011791 | |
Collections | ANU Research Publications |
Download
File | Description | Size | Format | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
01_Forbes_The_health_of_Australian_2004.pdf | Published Version | 135.67 kB | Adobe PDF | Request a copy |
Items in Open Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
Updated: 17 November 2022/ Responsible Officer: University Librarian/ Page Contact: Library Systems & Web Coordinator