SynthesisBMJ open2018
Meta-analysis of self-reported health symptoms in 1990-1991 Gulf War and Gulf War-era veterans.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of War on Asthma, a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: An EAACI Task Force Report.Allergy · 2026Pooled it
- Tai Chi and Wellness Interventions for Veterans with Gulf War Illness: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Trial
- Spermidine Attenuates Neuroimmune Dysfunction in Gulf War Illness via Modulation of the Gut- Brain Axis.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Article
- The Association Between Self-Reported Types of Toxic Exposures and Symptom Severity Among Gulf War Era Veterans.Medical care · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Patterns of Multimorbidity in Gulf War Era Veterans With and Without Gulf War Illness.Journal of aging and health · 2025Article
- Gulf War Illness Induced Sex-Specific Transcriptional Differences Under Stressful Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Fatigue, interoplastic and nociplastic distress in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War Illness, and chronic idiopathic fatigue.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Association of deployment characteristics and exposures with persistent ill health among 1990-1991 Gulf War veterans in the VA Million Veteran Program.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2024Article
- Comprehensive examination of resting state fMRI connectomics yields new insights into brain function deficits in Gulf War illness after accounting for heterogeneity in brain impairment across the ill veteran population.Neuroimage. Reports · 2024Article
- Crisis in the gut: navigating gastrointestinal challenges in Gulf War Illness with bioengineering.Military Medical Research · 2024Review
- Ketamine Produces Antidepressant Effects by Inhibiting Histone Deacetylases and Upregulating Hippocampal Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels in a Diisopropyl Fluorophosphate-Based Rat Model of Gulf War Illness.The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2024Article
- Investigating a clinically informed sleep disturbance threshold for physical and mental health among Gulf War Illness veterans.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2024Article
- Enduring association between irritable bowel syndrome and war trauma during the Nicaragua civil war period: A population-based study.World journal of gastroenterology · 2023Article
- Cognitive decrements in 1991 Gulf War veterans: associations with Gulf War illness and neurotoxicant exposures in the Boston Biorepository, Recruitment, and Integrative Network (BBRAIN) cohorts.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2023Article
- Association of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, Hypertension, Diabetes, and Hyperlipidemia With Gulf War Illness Among Gulf War Veterans.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2023Article
- Fingolimod mitigates memory loss in a mouse model of Gulf War Illness amid decreasing the activation of microglia, protein kinase R, and NFκB.Neurotoxicology · 2023Article
- CHRONIC MEDICAL CONDITIONS IN CROATIAN WAR VETERANS COMPARED TO THE GENERAL POPULATION: 25 YEARS AFTER THE WAR.Acta clinica Croatica · 2023Article
- Dysbiosis in gastrointestinal pathophysiology: Role of the gut microbiome in Gulf War Illness.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2023Review
- Pyridostigmine Bromide Pills and Pesticides Exposure as Risk Factors for Eye Disease in Gulf War Veterans.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAcross diverse groups of Gulf War (GW) veterans, reports of musculoskeletal pain, cognitive dysfunction, unexplained fatigue, chronic diarrhoea, rashes and respiratory problems are common. GW illness is a condition resulting from GW service in veterans who report a combination of these symptoms. This study integrated the GW literature using meta-analytical methods to characterise the most frequently reported symptoms occurring among veterans who deployed to the 1990-1991 GW and to better understand the magnitude of ill health among GW-deployed veterans compared with non-deployed GW-era veterans.
designMeta-analysis.
methodsLiterature databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies published from January 1990 to May 2017 reporting health symptom frequencies in GW-deployed veterans and GW-era control veterans. Self-reported health symptom data were extracted from 21 published studies. A binomial-normal meta-analytical model was used to determine pooled prevalence of individual symptoms in GW-deployed veterans and GW-era control veterans and to calculate combined ORs of health symptoms comparing GW-deployed veterans and GW-era control veterans.
resultsGW-deployed veterans had higher odds of reporting all 56 analysed symptoms compared with GW-era controls. Odds of reporting irritability (OR 3.21, 95% CI 2.28 to 4.52), feeling detached (OR 3.59, 95% CI 1.83 to 7.03), muscle weakness (OR 3.19, 95% CI 2.73 to 3.74), diarrhoea (OR 3.24, 95% CI 2.51 to 4.17) and rash (OR 3.18, 95% CI 2.47 to 4.09) were more than three times higher among GW-deployed veterans compared with GW-era controls.
conclusionsThe higher odds of reporting mood-cognition, fatigue, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal and dermatological symptoms among GW-deployed veterans compared with GW-era controls indicates these symptoms are important when assessing GW veteran health status.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.