VA Cooperative Studies Program (CSP)

Investigator Access

What's Available

Check with the study contact and publications for information on a public dataset, data archive, data enclave, or website where data might be available.

Available Documentation 

Dates data are Available 

Access Criteria

Study Characteristics

Objectives

To determine if the overall health of Veterans of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era, with a special focus on neurologic conditions and hepatitis C infection, is different from that of their counterparts who did not serve in the military.

Era of Service

Vietnam

Population

• Vietnam Veterans
• Blue Water Navy Veterans
• Veterans who served elsewhere during the Vietnam Era (1961–1975)
• Similarly aged U.S. residents who never served in the military
  

Study Design

Cross-sectional 

Time Period

2016 - 2018

Setting

National

N

24,306 participants

Response Rate

Unconfirmed

Recruitment Method

Recruitment by mailing a survey to a randomly selected sample of Vietnam-era Veterans and U.S. residential addresses.

• Veterans: Random sample of 45,067 Veterans was obtained from the VA United States Veterans Eligibility Trends & Statistics (USVETS) database. Decedents and those without a current U.S. postal address were excluded.
• U.S. public: U.S. public general population comparison sample is an age- and gender-matched sample of living non-Veteran members of the U.S. public born before 1958. 

Compensation

Unconfirmed

Data Collected

Demographics and health-related topics including

• Military service, such as service experience, combat experience, chemical and other exposures, re-entry into civilian life, or no military service
• General health, such as neurologic conditions, Hepatitis C, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, Type II diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, various cancers, cirrhosis, alcohol and drug dependency, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression
• Age-related conditions, such as memory, reasoning, and limitations
• Lifestyle, such as and tobacco use, health care use, living arrangements, and health experiences of descendants

Data Collection Methods

Data collected via questionnaire. There were two versions of the questionnaire: one for Veterans of the Vietnam Era and one for those selected from the U.S. general population who have never served in the military. A subset of participants provided investigators with access to their medical records. Hepatitis C and neurologic conditions validated by medical record review.

Funding Source

VA Office of Patient Care Services

Investigator

Primary Investigator: Victoria Davey, PhD, MPH, RN

Contact

Unconfirmed

Selected Publications

Blosnich, J.R, Hilgeman, M.M., Cypel, Y.S., Akhtar, F.Z., Fried, D., Ishii, E.K., Schneiderman, A., & Davey, V.J. (In press). Potentially traumatic events and health among lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual Vietnam veterans: Results from the Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 

Cypel, Y., Schnurr, P, Bossarte, R, Culpepper, W, Schneiderman, A., Akhtar, F, Morley, S., Davey, V. The mental health of older veterans ages 58-99 years: 2016-2017 VE-HEROeS findings. ¹ Innovation in Aging 2020; 4(S1): 170. 

Fales AS, Cypel YS, Dunn ME, Truelove AL, Ishii EK, Schneiderman AI, Davey VJ. Qualitative interviewing: Testing health surveys among Vietnam War Veterans at the age of 70 years. ¹ Sage Open 2019; 1-13. 

More Information

• Study website
• Study ClinicalTrials.gov site
  
• Dimensions for VA summary (Requires an account to access outside the VA network. Dimensions for VA is a database that connects publications, grants, patents, clinical trials, and policy documents)