ArticleEpidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)2015
Military Service and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in a Population-based Cohort.
Article in Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of and associated factors for sleep disorders in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Military service and related risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Acta neurologica Scandinavica · 2021Pooled it
- Environmental toxins in neurodegeneration - a narrative review.Neurological research and practice · 2025Review
- Occupational lead exposure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis survival in the Danish National Patient Registry.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2025Article
- Excessive Urinary p75ecd is a Potential Indicator of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: An American Cohort Study.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- What do you think caused your ALS? An analysis of the CDC national amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient registry qualitative risk factor data using artificial intelligence and qualitative methodology.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2024Article
- Prevalence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the United States using established and novel methodologies, 2017.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2023Article
- Demographics, clinical characteristics, and prognostic factors of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Midwest.Muscle & nerve · 2022Article
- Study of Occupational Chromium, Iron, and Nickel Exposure and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Denmark.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and Neuropathological Comorbidities.Seminars in neurology · 2020Review
- Environmental and Occupational Risk Factors of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Among Veterans Deployed in Support of Post-9/11 U.S. Conflicts.Military medicine · 2020Article
- Heavy Metal Neurotoxicants Induce ALS-Linked TDP-43 Pathology.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2019Article
- Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Within an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Brain Bank Cohort.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2018Article
- Studies of Environmental Risk Factors in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and a Phase I Clinical Trial of L-Serine.Neurotoxicity research · 2018Article
- The Potential Role of BMAA in Neurodegeneration.Neurotoxicity research · 2018Review
- An Evidence Map of the Women Veterans' Health Research Literature (2008-2015).Journal of general internal medicine · 2017Review
- Occupational formaldehyde and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.European journal of epidemiology · 2017Article
- Military Service and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in a Population-based Cohort: Extended Follow-up 1979-2011.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2017Article
- Environmental and Occupational Exposures and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in New England.Neuro-degenerative diseases · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMilitary service has been suggested to be associated with an increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but only one prospective study-of a volunteer cohort-has examined this question.
methodsWe prospectively assessed the relation between service in the military and ALS mortality among participants in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, a population-representative cohort of U.S. men and women surveyed from 1973 through 2002. Participant follow-up was conducted from 1979 through 2002 for ALS mortality. There were 696,743 men and 392,571 women who were 25 years old or more with military service data. In this group, there were 375 male ALS deaths and 96 female ALS deaths. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards.
resultsMen who served in the military had an increased adjusted ALS death rate [HR: 1.23; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.98, 1.53] compared with those who did not serve. An increase in ALS mortality was found among those who served during World War II (HR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.91) but not during other time periods. This pattern of results was similar for women, but with larger confidence intervals (HR for military service: 1.26; 95% CI: 0.29, 5.59; HR for service during World War II: 2.03; 95% CI: 0.45, 9.05).
conclusionsMilitary personnel have an increased risk of ALS, which may be specific to certain service periods although there was no data on actual deployment. Because of the longer follow-up time for World War II veterans, we cannot rule out that increased risk for those who served during other periods would be seen with further follow-up.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.