Kim Korinek is with the Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan is with the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.
Am J Public Health. 2014 Aug;104(8):1478-87. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301925. Epub 2014 Jun 12.
We sought to better understand the association between early life exposure to war and trauma and older adult health status in a developing setting.
We analyzed data of 405 Vietnamese men and women in 1 northern Vietnam commune who entered early adulthood during the Vietnam War and who are now entering late adulthood (i.e., ages 55 years and older in 2010).
The toll of war's trauma in the aging northern Vietnamese population was perceptible in the association between exposure to war trauma and various measures of physical health, including negative self-reported health and somatic symptoms. Killing another person and being exposed to toxic substances in warfare was especially detrimental to health in older adulthood. War traumas were likely implicated more strongly as determinants of late adulthood health in men than in women. The weak association between trauma exposure and reported depressive symptoms raised questions about measuring mental health.
Military service and war trauma were important determinants of older adult health beyond the US context, given the widespread waging of war and concentration of recent armed conflicts within developing societies.
本研究旨在更好地理解在发展中国家，早年经历战争和创伤与老年健康状况之间的关系。
我们分析了来自越南北部一个公社的 405 名男性和女性的数据，他们在越南战争期间进入成年期，现在已经进入老年期（即 2010 年时年龄在 55 岁及以上）。
在越南北方人口老龄化过程中，战争创伤的影响是显而易见的，战争创伤暴露与各种身体健康指标之间存在关联，包括自我报告的健康状况不佳和躯体症状。杀害他人和接触战争中的有毒物质对老年期的健康尤其不利。战争创伤对男性老年健康的决定作用可能比女性更强。创伤暴露与报告的抑郁症状之间的弱关联引发了对心理健康测量的质疑。
鉴于战争的广泛发生和近期武装冲突集中在发展中社会，除了美国背景之外，兵役和战争创伤也是老年健康的重要决定因素。
