Symptom patterns among Gulf War registry veterans.

Abstract

We identify symptom patterns among veterans who believe they suffer from Gulf War-related illnesses and characterize groups of individuals with similar patterns. A mail survey was completed by 1161 veterans drawn from the Gulf War Health Registry. An exploratory factor analysis revealed 4 symptom factors. A K-means cluster analysis revealed 2 groups: (1) veterans reporting good health and few moderate/severe symptoms, and (2) veterans reporting fair/poor health and endorsing an average of 37 symptoms, 75% as moderate/severe. Those in Cluster 2 were more likely to report having 1 or more of 24 medical conditions. These findings are consistent with previous investigations of symptom patterns in Gulf War veterans. This multisymptom illness may be more fully characterized by the extent, breadth, and severity of symptoms reported.