Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on July 17, 2006
Occupational Medicine 2006 56(5):329-337; doi:10.1093/occmed/kql059
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Symptoms, ill-health and quality of life in a support group of Porton Down veterans
1 University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK
2 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
3 Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Background There has been a Human Volunteer Programme at the British chemical weapons research facility at Porton Down since the First World War, in which some of the participants were exposed to chemical warfare agents.
Aim To identify any striking specific morbidity patterns in members of the Porton Down Veterans Support Group (PDVSG).
Methods A self-completed postal questionnaire was prepared including health immediately after the visits to Porton Down, subsequent diagnoses and hospital admissions, symptoms in, and after, the first 5 years after the visits, fatigue symptoms and current quality of life, measured using the SF-36.
Results Responses were received from 289 of 436 (66%). Results reported here relate to 269 male respondents of mean age 66.8 years. Sixty-six per cent reported their first visit to Porton Down in the 1950s. The most common diagnoses or hospital admissions reported were diseases of the circulatory system. In the first 5 years after their visits the most common symptoms were headache, irritability or outbursts of anger and feeling un-refreshed after sleep. In the later period, most common symptoms were fatigue, feeling un-refreshed after sleep and sleeping difficulties. Sixty-five per cent met the definition for a case of ‘fatigue’. Current quality of life dimensions were consistently lower than age-specific estimates from general population samples.
Conclusions Members of the PDVSG responding to this survey reported poorer quality of life than the general population. Despite there being no clear pattern of specific morbidities, we cannot rule out ill-health being potentially associated with past experience at Porton Down.
Keywords Chemical warfare agents; quality of life; symptoms; veterans
Correspondence to: Katherine M. Venables, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. Tel: +44 1865 227034; fax: +44 1865 226720; e-mail: kate.venables{at}dphpc.ox.ac.uk
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