Maconochie Noreen, Doyle Pat, Davies Graham, Lewis Samantha, Pelerin Margo, Prior Susan, Sampson Patrick
Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2003 Jan 10;3:4. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-3-4.
The aim of this study is to determine whether Gulf war veterans and their partners are at increased risk of adverse reproductive events and whether their children have increased risk of serious health problems. Methods and response to the study are reported here.
This was a retrospective cohort study of reproduction among UK Gulf war veterans, with a comparison cohort of Armed Service personnel who were not deployed to the Gulf. Reproductive history and details of children's health was collected by means of a validated postal questionnaire. A separate study of non-responders was conducted.
Questionnaires were returned by a total of 25,084 Gulf war veterans (24,379 men) and 19,003 (18,439 men) subjects in the comparison group. After adjusting for undelivered mail the response rate was 53% for Gulf war veterans and 42% for non-Gulf veterans among men, 72% and 60% among women. Data from the non-responder study suggests that failure to respond to the main survey was largely unrelated to reproduction. 11,155 (46%) male Gulf war veterans and 7,769 (42%) male non-Gulf war veterans had conceived, or attempted to conceive, since the Gulf war. They reported 16442 and 11517 pregnancies respectively in that period. For women, 313 (44%) Gulf veterans and 235 (42%) non-Gulf veterans reported 484 and 377 pregnancies respectively conceived since the Gulf war.
This survey enabled collection of information on a range of reproductive outcomes from veterans of the Gulf war and a suitably matched comparison cohort. Although the response rate for men was disappointing, selection bias related to reproduction does not appear to be strong in these data.
本研究旨在确定海湾战争退伍军人及其伴侣发生不良生殖事件的风险是否增加，以及他们的子女出现严重健康问题的风险是否增加。本文报告了该研究的方法及结果。
这是一项针对英国海湾战争退伍军人生殖情况的回顾性队列研究，以未被部署到海湾地区的武装部队人员作为对照队列。通过一份经过验证的邮政问卷收集生殖史和儿童健康细节。对未回复者进行了单独研究。
共有25,084名海湾战争退伍军人（24,379名男性）和19,003名（18,439名男性）对照队列受试者回复了问卷。在对未送达邮件进行调整后，男性海湾战争退伍军人的回复率为53%，非海湾退伍军人的回复率为42%；女性的回复率分别为72%和60%。未回复者研究的数据表明，未回复主要调查与生殖情况基本无关。自海湾战争以来，11,155名（46%）男性海湾战争退伍军人和7,769名（42%）男性非海湾战争退伍军人已怀孕或尝试怀孕。在此期间，他们分别报告了16442次和11517次怀孕。对于女性，313名（44%）海湾退伍军人和235名（42%）非海湾退伍军人报告自海湾战争以来分别怀孕484次和377次。
这项调查能够收集海湾战争退伍军人及适当匹配的对照队列的一系列生殖结果信息。尽管男性的回复率令人失望，但这些数据中与生殖相关的选择偏倚似乎并不严重。
