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Association between deployment and Gulf War Illness and adverse COVID outcomes in a nationwide cohort of 1990-1991 Gulf Era war veterans in the VA's Million… — Europe PMC PMID:42296096

Source: Europe PMC (en)
Original: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42296096
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0348594
License (as archived): CC0-1.0
Archived: 2026-10-06T09:20:38.500Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 7ab5bdfe7675b9a1f1234a90ef256a09826b391029d4c8f39b2ae2fcba16cd09
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How to cite

Association between deployment and Gulf War Illness and adverse COVID outcomes in a nationwide cohort of 1990-1991 Gulf Era war veterans in the VA's Million… — Europe PMC PMID:42296096 — Europe PMC (en), https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42296096 (CC0-1.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_5ce36ed697d2 (Metraipolis archive dc_5ce36ed697d2, sha256 7ab5bdfe7675b9a1f1234a90ef256a09826b391029d4c8f39b2ae2fcba16cd09)

BibTeX

@misc{dc5ce36ed697d2,
  title = {Association between deployment and Gulf War Illness and adverse COVID outcomes in a nationwide cohort of 1990-1991 Gulf Era war veterans in the VA's Million… — Europe PMC PMID:42296096},
  howpublished = {Europe PMC (en)},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42296096},
  note = {License CC0-1.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_5ce36ed697d2; sha256 7ab5bdfe7675b9a1f1234a90ef256a09826b391029d4c8f39b2ae2fcba16cd09},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC0-1.0. Attribution: Europe PMC (en), https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42296096. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Background: U.S. military veterans deployed to the Persian Gulf to serve in the 1990-1991 Gulf War (GWVs) have expressed concerns about potential increased risk of experiencing adverse COVID-related health outcomes given broad near-unique exposure to multiple diverse toxic agents during deployment and ongoing ~30% prevalence of Gulf War Illness (GWI+), a chronic, medically unexplained multi-symptom disorder associated with inflammation and immune dysregulation. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in the largest nationwide research cohort of 1990-1991Gulf War era veterans (GWEVs) enrolled in the VA's nationwide Million Veteran Program (MVP) to interrogate: 1) if deployed GWVs had increased risk for testing positive for novel SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID+), COVID-related hospitalization, ICU admission, or death in 2020 (pre-vaccine period); and 2) if deployed GWVs with GWI+ had particularly increased susceptibility. COVID outcomes ascertained using VA's COVID Data Resource; GWI+ determined using CDC severe criteria in surveyed GWV subcohort. Findings: Our overall GWEV cohort (N = 136,868) had mean age 60.7 years, with 84% male, 27% African-American, and 22% deployed; n = 26,141 COVID-tested in 2020. COVID test-positivity (COVID+) was slightly higher in deployed GWVs (18.8% vs. 17.2% in non-deployed GWEVs, p = 0.005). In multivariable logistic models, there were neither strong nor significant associations between deployment and testing COVID+, COVID-related hospitalization or ICU admission (adjusted [adj] ORs ranged from 0.90-1.06, all p-values >0.05), nor significant differences in COVID-related mortality. Preliminary analysis in our pre-pandemic surveyed deployed GWV subcohort (N = 1,643 COVID-tested, 39% GWI+, 18.4% testing-COVID+, 10.6% COVID+ hospitalized) suggested GWI+ potentially associated with significantly increased COVID-hospitalization risk (adjOR=2.21, 95%CI: 1.02-4.81, p = 0.04); though no significant excess was observed for COVID-related ICU admission or mortality. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that overall deployment to serve in the 1990-1991 Gulf War was not associated with increased COVID-related health risks among Gulf War era veterans using VA healthcare system in early pre-vaccine pandemic era. Preliminary findings suggesting association between Gulf War Illness and potential increased COVID-related hospitalization risk among deployed Gulf War veterans in the early pandemic era warrants replication and ongoing evaluation to assess if it persists in the era of COVID vaccination, oral anti-COVID medications and new viral variants.

Tema degli esploratori: scienze della vita e salute (ricerca Europe PMC «epidemiology», solo open access).
Pubblicazione: PloS one, 2026 (prima pubblicazione 2026-06-15).
Identificativi: PMID 42296096 · PMCID PMC13268159 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0348594.
Descrittori MeSH principali: Persian Gulf Syndrome; Veterans; COVID-19.
Pagina: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42296096 — https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348594. Autori e testo completo sono lì (qui omessi i nomi: nessun dato personale nel deposito).
Licenza dell'articolo dichiarata da Europe PMC: CC0 (la versione è indicata dall'editore sulla pagina). Abstract riportato senza modifiche al contenuto, con attribuzione; deposito marcato CC0.
Letto il 2026-10-06T08:23:00.002Z tramite l'API REST ufficiale di Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), nel rispetto del robots.txt e del crawl-delay.