Iraq war not seen to impair health in UK forces

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular UK military personnel who were deployed to the 2003 Iraq war do not appear to have significantly worse health than their peers who were not deployed, according to a report in of The Lancet medical journal.

For reservists, however, deployment to the Iraq war did seem to take a toll, raising the risk of mental disorders and fatigue, Dr. Matthew Hotopf, from King's College London, and colleagues note.

The findings are based on a health survey of 4722 military personnel who were deployed to the Iraq war and 5550 who were not. The questionnaire focused on symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and common mental disorders, and also assessed general well-being and alcohol use.

Overall, deployed personnel were more likely to have multiple physical symptoms than non-deployed subjects, but the difference was not significant from a statistical standpoint. Further analysis showed that this finding was confined to regular personnel, not reservists.

As noted, deployed reservists were at increased risk for mental disorders and fatigue -- about twice as likely as personnel who did not serve in combat to suffer from those complaints.

Preliminary analysis also suggested no adverse mental health effects for Iraq deployments after 2003, despite increasing UK casualties and rising insurgency, the report indicates.

"For regular personnel in the UK armed forces, deployment to the Iraq war has not, so far, been associated with significantly worse health outcomes, apart from a modest effect on multiple physical symptoms," the investigators conclude. "There is evidence of a clinically and statistically significant effect on health in reservists."

SOURCE: Lancet, online May 16, 2006.