author, Dr. Robert Haley, has worked as an epidemiologist for the CDC.
The accompanying editorial may also be of interest to anyone who
follows the debate about case definitions.
'Neuroepidemiology. 2011;37(2):129-40. Epub 2011 Oct 7.
Validation of a research case definition of Gulf War illness in the
1991 US military population.
Iannacchione VG, Dever JA, Bann CM, Considine KA, Creel D, Carson CP,
Best H, Haley RW.
RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
A case definition of Gulf War illness with 3 primary variants,
previously developed by factor analysis of symptoms in a US Navy
construction battalion and validated in clinic veterans, identified
ill veterans with objective abnormalities of brain function. This
study tests prestated hypotheses of its external validity.
METHODS:
A stratified probability sample (n =3D 8,020), selected from a sampling
frame of the 3.5 million Gulf War era US military veterans, completed
a computer-assisted telephone interview survey. Application of the
prior factor weights to the subjects' responses generated the case
definition.
RESULTS:
The structural equation model of the case definition fit both random
halves of the population sample well (root mean-square error of
approximation =3D 0.015). The overall case definition was 3.87 times
(95% confidence interval, 2.61-5.74) more prevalent in the deployed
than the deployable nondeployed veterans: 3.33 (1.10-10.10) for
syndrome variant 1; 5.11 (2.43-10.75) for variant 2, and 4.25
(2.33-7.74) for variant 3. Functional status on SF-12 was greatly
reduced (effect sizes, 1.0-2.0) in veterans meeting the overall and
variant case definitions.
CONCLUSIONS:
The factor case definition applies to the full Gulf War veteran
population and has good characteristics for research.
Copyright =A9 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.
Full text can be found here:
http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?DOI=3D000331478&typ=3Dpdf
This paper was accompanied by the following editorial:
Importance of Case Definition in Epidemiological Studies
Sushil=A0K.=A0Sharma
Center for Science, Technology, and Engineering, Applied
Research and Methods, US Government Accountability Office,
Washington, D.C. , USA
http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?DOI=3D000332609&typ=3Dpdf
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