Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Patterns Of Drug Use And Abuse Among Aging Adults With And Without Hiv: A Latent Class Analysis Of A Us Veteran Cohort, Traci C. Green, Trace Kershaw, Haiqun Lin, Robert Heimer, Joseph L. Goulet, Kevin L. Kraemer, Adam J. Gordon, Steve A. Maisto, Nancy L. Day, Kendall Bryant, David A. Fiellin, Amy C. Justice

Public Health Resources

This study characterized the extent and patterns of self-reported drug use among aging adults with and without HIV, assessed differences in patterns by HIV status, and examined pattern correlates. Data derived from 6351 HIV-infected and uninfected adults enrolled in an eight-site matched cohort, the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS). Using clinical variables from electronic medical records and sociodemographics, drug use consequences, and frequency of drug use from baseline surveys, we performed latent class analyses (LCA) stratified by HIV status and adjusted for clinical and socio-demographic covariates. Participants were, on average, age 50 (range 22–86), primarily male (95%) and African-American (64%). …

An Examination Of The Construct Validity Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder With Veterans Using A Revised Criterion Set, Anouk L. Grubaugh, Mary E. Long, Jon D. Elhai, B. Christopher Frueh, Kathryn M. Magruder

Public Health Resources

Ongoing concerns exist in the literature regarding the construct of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how to best conceptualize and measure this disorder. We compared the traditional DSM-IV PTSD symptom criteria (i.e., symptoms from clusters B, C, and D) to a revised criterion set that omits overlapping mood and other anxiety symptoms on PTSD prevalence, PTSD diagnostic caseness, associated psychiatric comorbidity, functional status, and structural validity using a cross-sectional, multi-site primary care sample of 747 veterans. After removing items theorized to overlap with mood and other anxiety disorders, PTSD prevalence was identical using both criterion sets (i.e., 12%). Overall, there …

Investigating The Risk Of Cancer In 1990–1991 Us Gulf War Veterans With The Use Of State Cancer Registry Data, Heather A. Young, Jessica D. Maillard, Paul H. Levine, Samuel J. Simmens, Clare M. Mahan, Han K. Kang

Public Health Resources

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether proportional cancer incidence is greater among Gulf War veterans compared with non-Gulf War veterans.

METHODS: Files obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center included data for 621,902 veterans who were deployed to the Persian Gulf during the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War (August 2, 1990, to March 1, 1991) and 746,248 non-Gulf War veteran controls. Identification of veterans who received a cancer diagnosis between 1991 and 2006 was accomplished through record linkage of the Defense Manpower Data Center dataset with files from 28 state cancer registries and the Department of …

Mortality Patterns Of Army Chemical Corps Veterans Who Were Occupationally Exposed To Herbicides In Vietnam, Yasmin Cypel, Han Kang

Public Health Resources

PURPOSE: This research examined the risk of disease-related mortality of the Army Chemical Corps (ACC) veterans who handled/sprayed herbicides in Vietnam in comparison with their non-Vietnam veteran peers or U.S. men.

METHODS: Vital status was determined through December 31, 2005. All-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality were compared for individuals who served in Vietnam (n Z 2872) versus those who did not (n Z 2737). Similar analyses were completed on a subset of the original Vietnam cohort that consisted of individuals who either reported spraying herbicide (n Z 662) or not (n Z 811). The observed deaths for each …