Reproductive health of male Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Self-reported pregnancy outcomes in 1991 or later and reported birthweights and health outcomes for children born in 1992 or later

	Gulf War veterans		Comparison group
Pregnancy outcomes in 1991 or later	n	(%)^a	n	(%)^a	Adj OR^b	95% CI^c
Number of pregnancies	N = 1448		N = 1555
Live births	1170	(80.8)	1272	(81.8)	-	-
Miscarriages	204	(14.1)	197	(12.7)	1.1	(0.8–1.3)
Stillbirths	5	(0.4)	14	(0.9)
Terminations	69	(4.8)	72	(4.6)	1.0	(0.7–1.5)
Children born in 1992 or later	n	(%)	n	(%)	Adj OR	95% CI ^f
Number of children	N = 1096	-	N = 1145	-
Low birth weight	56	(6.3)^d	65	(6.9)^d	0.9	(0.6–1.3)
Very low birth weight	9	(1.0)^d	9	(1.0)^d	1.0	(0.4–2.8)
Premature birth	71	(7.3)^e	94	(9.4)^e	0.7	(0.5–1.1)
Reported cancer	4	(0.4)	1	(0.1)	4.2^g	(0.5–38.0)^g
Reported birth defect	40	(3.6)	38	(3.3)	1.0	(0.6–1.6)
Reported death	2	(0.2)	4	(0.3)	0.5^g	(0.1–2.9)^g

^a Percentage values for pregnancy outcomes in 1991 or later are derived from N = 1448 pregnancies in Gulf War veterans and N = 1555 pregnancies in the comparison group.
^b Odds ratios are for miscarriages/stillbirths combined, or terminations, compared to live births. Odds ratios were obtained by polytomous logistic regression adjusting for age, rank, service type, education, marital status, smoking and alcohol.
^c CIs are adjusted for clustering of multiple pregnancies within individuals.
^d These percentages are derived from N = 885 live births for Gulf War veterans and N = 936 live births for the comparison group for whom birth weight was provided.
^e These percentages are derived from N = 978 live births for Gulf War veterans and N = 997 live births for the comparison group for whom duration of pregnancy was provided.
^f Standard errors were adjusted for clustering of multiple births within the same individual.
^g Due to the small numbers of events, the odds ratio was not adjusted for confounders and clustering. The associated 95% CI was adjusted for clustering.

ISSN: 1471-2458