1. Pooled analysis of all-cause and cause-specific mortality among Nordic military veterans following international deployment.
- Author
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Pethrus CM, Vedtofte MS, Neovius K, Borud EK, and Neovius M
- Subjects
- Cause of Death, Humans, Mortality, Risk, Neoplasms, Suicide, Veterans
- Abstract
Objectives: To investigate all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks, including deaths from external, cardiovascular and cancer causes, among deployed Nordic military veterans in comparison to the general population in each country., Design: Pooled analysis., Setting: Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden., Participants: Military veterans deployed between 1990 and 2010 were followed via nationwide registers and compared with age-sex-calendar-year-specific rates in the general population using pooled standardised mortality ratios (SMRs)., Main Outcomes: All-cause and cause-specific mortality retrieved from each country's Causes of Death Register, including deaths from external, cardiovascular and cancer causes., Results: Among 83 584 veterans 1152 deaths occurred of which 343 were from external causes (including 203 suicides and 129 traffic/transport accidents), 134 from cardiovascular causes and 297 from neoplasms. Veterans had a lower risk of death from any cause (pooled SMR 0.58, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.64), external causes (0.71, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.79), suicide (0.77, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.89), cardiovascular causes (0.54, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.64) and neoplasms (0.78, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.88). There was no difference regarding traffic/transport accidents for the whole period (1.10, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.31) but the pooled point estimate was elevated, though not statistically significant, during the first 5 years (1.17, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.53) but not thereafter (1.01, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.34). For all other causes of death, except suicide, statistically significantly lower risk among veterans was observed both during the first 5 years and thereafter. For suicide, no difference was observed beyond 5 years. Judged from the country-specific SMR estimates, there was a high degree of consistency although statistically significant heterogeneity was found for all-cause mortality., Conclusions: Nordic military veterans had lower overall and cause-specific mortality than the general population for most outcomes, as expected given the predeployment selection process. Though uncommon, fatal traffic/transport accidents were an exception with no difference between deployed military veterans and the general population., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)
- Published
- 2022
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