Viet Vets Have Adjusted as Well as Others, Study Finds

The most comprehensive study ever done of the physical and mental health of Vietnam veterans has concluded that they have been no less successful in adjusting to employment, marriage and civilian life than veterans who never served in that war.

The federal report, released Wednesday, found Vietnam veterans somewhat more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression and alcohol dependence or abuse. But overall, those problems have not blocked them from social and economic achievements comparable to those of their peers, the researchers reported.

The study of more than 15,000 Army veterans also found few documentable differences in the current physical health of the two groups, according to results released Wednesday. Although Vietnam veterans were more likely to rate their health as merely fair or poor, physical examinations revealed no overall differences from other veterans.

The researchers traced the discrepancies in part to emotional stress among Vietnam veterans.

Similarly, Vietnam veterans reported more reproductive difficulties and birth defects and health problems among their children. But an examination of the hospital birth records of a subgroup in the study found similar rates of birth defects among the offspring of Vietnam and non-Vietnam veterans.

“These men did not fit the stereotype of Vietnam veterans as psychologically disturbed and socially maladjusted,” said Dr. Frank DeStefano, a medical epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control who worked on the study. “Although it is true that some have psychological problems, the majority don’t.”

The Centers for Disease Control study, mandated by Congress in 1979, was intended to answer concerns that military service had permanently damaged Vietnam veterans’ health. There has been little objective evidence comparing their condition to that of other veterans of similar age and background, according to the study.

Veterans groups have hoped the findings might support their pursuit of increased funding for medical services. The study results will be discussed today at a congressional hearing in Washington and published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

While the study did not focus specifically on the health effects of herbicides such as Agent Orange, which many veterans believe did lasting harm to their health, it found no differences in the frequency of conditions such as skin, liver and immune-system problems, which some believe can be caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

The researchers also reported that they found no overall increase in cancers among the Vietnam group. However, they noted that their study was not designed specifically to assess that risk, which is the subject of an ongoing Centers for Disease Control project.

A separate centers study of cancers among Vietnam veterans is scheduled for completion in 1990, DeStefano said.

‘Some Clarification’

“I don’t think this will put (the health--related questions) to rest,” DeStefano said in a telephone interview this week. “But I hope the data will bring some clarification, some objective information, to questions on which up to now there have been a lot of speculation.”

The study involved 7,924 Vietnam veterans and 7,364 non-Vietnam veterans, all of whom enlisted in the Army between 1965 and 1971. They had comparable education, socioeconomic backgrounds and rates of childhood behavioral problems.

All underwent an extensive telephone interview. About 40% of each group also submitted to three days of physical and psychological exams. Finally, the researchers studied the hospital birth records of 3,683 of the veterans’ children.

In the telephone interviews, according to the study, Vietnam veterans were almost twice as likely (19.6% to 11.1%) to report that they had health problems. But when physicians who did not know the military history of the two groups examined the former soldiers, they could detect few medical differences between the Vietnam veterans and the others.

Increased Stress

The study said the difference between what the Vietnam veterans reported and what was found in examinations may be the result of increased stress.

“Vietnam veterans may have reported more symptoms and past medical conditions because they experienced more stress than did non-Vietnam veterans,” the study said.

The researchers found the two groups similar in current educational, employment, income and marital status. Most expressed satisfaction with their personal relationships. Very few in either group were in jail, institutionalized or currently dependent upon drugs.

For example, more than 90% of both groups of veterans were employed at the time of the study. More non-Vietnam veterans were in managerial and executive positions. But in general, the researchers found that the jobs in both groups were similar.

However, about 14% of the Vietnam veterans abused alcohol, compared to 9% of the non-Vietnam group. Five percent of the Vietnam group suffered from diagnosable anxiety or depression, compared to 3% and 2%, respectively, in the non-Vietnam group.

Accepted Criteria

About 15% of the Vietnam veterans met the accepted criteria for so-called post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition in which a person relives a particularly stressful traumatic event. Because the other veterans served in the United States, Germany or Korea and did not see combat, the disorder was extremely rare in that group.

“Fifteen to 20 years afterward, more Vietnam veterans have psychological and emotional problems,” the study concluded. “ . . . These psychological problems, however, are not of a magnitude that has resulted in Vietnam veterans having, as a group, lower social and economic attainment.”

The only clearly documented difference in the physical health of the two groups involved hearing: Vietnam veterans--particularly infantrymen, combat engineers and artillery members--were 40% more likely to have high-frequency hearing loss.

The researchers also found the Vietnam veterans twice as likely to have low sperm concentrations, a finding DeStefano said he is at a loss to explain. Nevertheless, the researchers found similar numbers of offspring in the two groups.

On the subject of birth defects, the study’s results were conflicting.

Phone Interviews

During the telephone interviews, Vietnam veterans reported significantly more birth defects in their children than non-Vietnam veterans. The reported rates were 64.6 and 49.5 respectively per 1,000 total births.

But when the researchers examined hospital birth records for 1,945 children of Vietnam veterans and 1,738 children from the other group, they found comparable birth defect rates in the two groups. The rates were 72.6 and 71.1 per 1,000.

The study follows numerous, mostly smaller studies, of such things as the mental condition and mortality rate of Vietnam veterans. Researchers and veterans groups said this week that the federal study is the most comprehensive so far.