More than 80 percent of a sample of Air Force women deployed in Iraq and other areas around the world report suffering from persistent fatigue, fever, hair loss and difficulty concentrating, a study indicates.
The pattern of health problems reported by 1,114 women surveyed in 2006 and 2007 is similar to many symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome, the controversial condition reported by veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
“It is possible that some unknown environmental factor is the cause of current health problems and of Gulf War Syndrome,” says researcher Penny Pierce.
“But it is also possible that these symptoms result from the stress of military deployment, especially prolonged and multiple deployments.”
Pierce and U-M colleagues conducted a similar study of women veterans in 1992 following that war to assess the impact of deployment and combat exposure on physical and mental health.
An associate professor at the School of Nursing and a faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), Pierce also is a colonel in the Air Force Reserve Program. With ISR psychologist Lisa Lewandowski-Romps, she presented the findings from the study Aug. 14 in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
“Women now comprise approximately 15 percent of our nation’s armed forces,” Pierce says. “And since the Persian Gulf War, combat roles for women have expanded substantially. This study is an attempt to understand the impact of deployment and war-related stressors on the health of military women.”
The Air Force women surveyed by telephone and through mailed questionnaires were drawn from a stratified, random sample and deployed at least once since March 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Half of those sampled served in the theater of war and half served elsewhere; half had children under the age of 18 still living at home; half were active duty, a quarter in the Reserves and another quarter in the National Guard. The median age of participants was 36 years and 45 percent were married. About 36 percent had a dependent child at the time they were sent overseas. About 70 percent were white.
Asked if they experienced any of a list of symptoms persistently in the past year, 89 percent of those surveyed reported suffering from fatigue, 85 percent from difficulty concentrating, 83 percent from fever, and 83 percent from hair loss. In addition, 35 percent reported suffering from muscle pain and stiffness, 29 percent from irritability, 26 percent from loss of energy and 25 percent from headaches.
Those in the reserve and guard in general reported more physical symptoms than active duty personnel, Pierce and Lewandowski say. Enlisted women reported more health problems than officers did.
