Military service, deployments, and exposures in relation to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis etiology.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Factors underlying a possible excess of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among military veterans remain unidentified. Limitations of previous studies on this topic include reliance on ALS mortality as a surrogate for ALS incidence, low statistical power, and sparse information on military-related factors.

Objectives

We evaluated associations between military-related factors and ALS using data from a case-control study of U.S. military veterans.

Methods

From 2005 to 2010, we identified medical record-confirmed ALS cases via the National Registry of Veterans with ALS and controls via the Veterans Benefits Administration's Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator System database. In total, we enrolled 621 cases and 958 frequency-matched controls in th

SUBMITTER: Beard JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4876822 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature