Women Vietnam Veterans: Do PTSD Symptoms Mediate Effects of Warzone Service on Health?

Abstract

We used regression models to assess the impact of warzone stress on physical and mental health of 975 female Vietnam veteran nurses, and whether current PTSD symptoms mediated these relations. Women's Vietnam Memorial Project members were surveyed in 1998, with analyses adjusted for age, length of military service, and current health symptoms. Findings suggest that among women nurses deployed to Vietnam, the effects of warzone stress many years earlier on current health are both direct and indirect, mediated by PTSD symptoms. The legacy of wartime deployment remains, although muted in its expression, in military nurses nearly 30 years after their return.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Study design and data collection were supported by the National Academy of Sciences Subcontract NAS-VA-5124-98-001. Support for this study was also provided by the National Center for PTSD and the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, by National Institutes of Health grant R24-AG039343 and by a VA Research Career Scientist Award. The authors express appreciation to Margaret Keleher and Karestan Koenen for contributions to study design and data collection, to the Women's Vietnam Memorial Project, Inc., for its collaboration and to their colleagues in the Stress, Health, and Aging Research Program (SHARP), VA Boston Healthcare System.

Notes

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