Rosalind J. Wright|Martha E. Fay|S. F. Suglia|Clancy J. Clark|John S. Evans|Douglas W. Dockery|Jawad Behbehani
War-related stressors are associated with asthma risk among older Kuwaitis following the 1990 Iraqi invasion and occupation
Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Harvard University|Kuwait University
contemporary warfare involving civilian populations growing public health concern addition psychological impact warrelated trauma may result physiological alterations even broader health effects associations examined warrelated stressors incident asthma elderly kuwaiti civilians following iraqi invasiona random sample kuwaiti nationals aged 5069 years day prior invasion identified among 7873 meeting eligibility criteria 5567 71 agreed participate 5028 completed questionnaire 91 eligible 3759 kuwait invasion 2294 alive followup exclusions prevalent asthma missingness covariates 2066 available analysis warrelated experiences summarised continuous score using rasch modelling relative cox proportional hazard rates hr calculated asthma adjusting covariatesover 13 years followup physiciandiagnosed asthma reported 66996 66 men 1041070 97 women models adjusted gender socioeconomic status smoking bmi air pollution related burning oil fires reporting highest stress exposure twice likely report asthma hr 23 95 ci 13 39 compared civilians reporting stressors experiences salient anchored fear loss lifewarrelated trauma associated increased asthma risk elderly civilians although prior research documented significant persistent psychological toll war findings implicate even broader health effects