Is military employment associated with the risk of cognitive impairment in older adult? Evidence from China.

Background: It remains unknown whether a link exists between military employment and alterations in cognitive function later in life. Aim: To examine the association between military employment and cognitive impairment in adults. Methods: Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey data from 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The participants included Chinese military veterans and non-veterans aged ≥65 years. Veteran status was defined according to the self-reported prior service as uniformed military personnel in the armed forces. Cognitive function was assessed using the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination. Nearest neighbor caliper matching without replacement was conducted to generate matched pairs. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine the association between military employment and cognitive impairment in the matched cohort, with adjustments for age, sex, education level, marital status, current smoking status, and chronic disease history. To assess the robustness of the findings, sensitivity analyses were conducted by defining cognitive impairment according to higher education-specific cut-off values. Results: Data from 102 matched pairs were analyzed. The logistic regression analyses demonstrated that military employment was not significantly associated with the risk of cognitive impairment (odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI)]: 0.61 [0.24-1.55). The sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. Conclusions: There was no evidence to suggest military employment affected the risk of cognitive impairment later in life in this Chinese cohort. Nevertheless, owing to the high prevalence of impaired cognition among Chinese veterans, it remains an important health condition requiring further study.