School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, 90 Stamford Road, Singapore 178903, Singapore.
Soc Sci Med. 2012 Jun;74(12):1995-2004. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.01.040. Epub 2012 Mar 14.
War is deemed a major threat to public health; yet, the long-term effects of war on individual health have rarely been examined in the context of developing countries. Based on data collected as a pilot follow-up to the Vietnam Longitudinal Survey, this study examines current health profiles of northern Vietnamese war survivors who entered early adulthood during the Vietnam War and now represent Vietnam's older adult population. To ascertain how war and military service in the early life course may have had long-term impacts on health status of Vietnam's current older adults, we compare multi-dimensional measures of health among veterans and nonveterans, and within these groups, regardless of their military service, between combatants and noncombatants. Multivariate results suggest that despite prolonged exposure to war, veterans and those who served in combat roles are not significantly different from their civilian and noncombatant counterparts on most health outcomes later in life. This is in contrast to American veterans who fought on the opposing side of the war. The near absence of differences in older adult health among northern Vietnamese with varying degrees of war involvement might be explained by the encompassing extent of war; the notion that time heals; and the hardiness and resilience against ill health that are by-products of shared struggle in war and a victorious outcome.
战争被认为是对公共健康的重大威胁；然而，在发展中国家的背景下，战争对个人健康的长期影响很少被研究。本研究基于作为越南纵向调查的试点后续收集的数据，研究了在越南战争期间进入成年早期的越南北方战争幸存者的当前健康状况，他们现在代表了越南的老年人口。为了确定战争和早期兵役如何对越南当前老年人的健康状况产生长期影响，我们比较了退伍军人和非退伍军人之间以及这些群体内部的多维健康指标，无论其是否有兵役，都比较了战斗人员和非战斗人员之间的多维健康指标。多变量结果表明，尽管经历了长期的战争，退伍军人和战斗人员在大多数健康结果上与他们的平民和非战斗人员没有显著差异。这与在战争中处于对立面的美国退伍军人形成了鲜明对比。在越南北方，不同程度参与战争的成年人的健康状况几乎没有差异，这可能是由于战争的广泛影响、时间治愈一切的观念以及在战争和胜利的共同斗争中产生的对健康的坚韧和适应能力。
