Impact of Military Service in Vietnam on Coping and Health Behaviors of Aging Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Many Vietnam War veterans who experienced military trauma still exhibit PTSD symptomatology. Little is known about how new stressful situations, like the COVID-19 pandemic, affect previously traumatized people or whether they will react differently to them. We explore whether military combat experiences in Vietnam affect veterans' perceived abilities to cope with COVID-19 and whether current PTSD symptoms and later-adulthood reengagement with trauma memories are related to coping. We examine the extent that current PTSD symptoms and trauma reengagement relate to preventive practices. Participants were part of a randomly sampled cohort of American Legionnaires who responded to two previous surveys (1984, 1998), were born 1945-1953 and deployed to Vietnam 1963-1973, thus representing an aging veteran population. A survey supplement assessed coping with the pandemic and adherence to public health guidelines. The response rate was 74% (N = 507); 422 (61.6%) completed the COVID-19 supplement. Military experiences were found to affect coping with 41.4% reporting they affected ability to cope with COVID-19. Medium- and high-combat veterans were more likely to report that military experience affected coping than low-combat (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.51–3.96; 2.6, 95% CI 1.41–4.61, respectively). Those with high PTSD scores had 7.7-fold (95% CI 4.3–13.17) increased likelihood of reporting that their coping was affected, compared to low-PTSD scorers. Few adopted social distancing (4%), staying at home (17%), or ceasing usual activities (32%); high-combat veterans were least likely to stay home. Veterans who practiced handwashing, sanitizer use, mask-wearing, and surface disinfection had significantly higher PTSD scores than those who did not. Veterans with higher scores on the LOSS-SF scale associated more reengagement with trauma memories and were more likely to engage in personal preventive strategies. Analysis of open-ended responses supported these findings. We conclude that fifty years after returning from Vietnam, PTSD scores were high for high-combat veterans, suggestive of PTSD diagnosis. Military experiences affected coping with COVID both positively and negatively, and may have helped instill useful personal health behaviors. Veterans, especially those with PTSD symptomatology, may have special needs during stressful times, like the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting compliance with recommended practices, as well as their overall health and well-being.

Correlates of Psychological Well-being Among Korean Vietnam War Veterans

Prior research on Veterans’ mental health has largely focused on identifying risk and protective factors for negative psychological symptoms such as PTSD. However, mental health indicates not merely absence of psychopathology, but also the existence of positive psychological well-being (Keyes, 2005). Thus, the current study aimed to examine the correlates of psychological well-being, which is less studied, in an Asian sample, Korean veterans. Data for this 2017 study were from Korean Vietnam War Veterans Study. Participants were 348 male veterans, and their mean age was about 72 years old (SD = 2.7, range = 65-84). Using Keyes’ (2002) classification criteria, psychological well-being was divided into three types: flourishing (9.5%), moderately health (59.95%), and languishing (25.3%). Own-way analyses of variance showed that the groups did not differ in demographic variables (age, marital status, education, and income). Further, there were no differences in combat exposure, negative appraisals of military service, smoking, and alcohol consumption. However, significant group differences were found for resources; Scheffé's post-hoc analyses indicated that optimism, positive appraisals of military service, four types of social support (family, significant others, friend, and military peer), and self-rated health were significantly different among the groups, and highest in the flourishing group. The moderately health group showed higher levels of positive appraisals of military service and four types of social support than the languishing group. Thus, the majority (about 60%) of Korean Vietnam veterans were moderately psychologically healthy in this sample, but those with positive psychosocial resources were more likely to be healthiest.

Return to Vietnam

Between 1981 and 2016, thousands of American and Australian Vietnam War veterans returned to Việt Nam. This comparative, transnational oral history offers the first historical study of these return journeys. It shows how veterans returned in search of resolution, or peace, manifesting in shifting nostalgic visions of 'Vietnam.' Different national war narratives shaped their returns: Australians followed the 'Anzac' pilgrimage tradition, whereas for Americans the return was an anti-war act. Veterans met former enemies, visited battlefields, mourned friends, found new relationships, and addressed enduring legacies of war. Many found their memories of war eased by witnessing Việt Nam at peace. Yet this peacetime reality also challenged veterans' wartime connection to Vietnamese spaces. The place they were nostalgic for was Vietnam, a space in war memory, not Việt Nam, the country. Veterans drew from wartime narratives to negotiate this displacement, performing nostalgic practices to reclaim their sense of belonging.

Brain networks involved in the influence of religion on empathy in male Vietnam War veterans

Humans all over the world believe in spirits and deities, yet how the brain supports religious cognition remains unclear. Drawing on a unique sample of patients with penetrating traumatic brain injuries (pTBI) and matched healthy controls (HCs) we investigate dependencies of religious cognition on neural networks that represent (1) others agents’ intentions (Theory of Mind, ToM) and (2) other agents’ feelings (Empathy). Extending previous observations that ToM networks are recruited during prayer, we find that people with vmPFC damage report higher scores on the personal relationship with God inventory even when they are not praying. This result offers evidence that it is the modulation of ToM networks that support beliefs in supernatural agents. With respect to empathetic processing, we observed that vmPFC and pSTS/TPJ lesions mediated by the strength of the personal relationship with God affect empathetic responses. We suggest that the neurological networks underpinning God representations amplify human empathetic responses. The cultural evolutionary study of religion has argued that supernatural beliefs evoke pro-social responses because people fear the wrath of Gods. Our findings imply greater attention should be paid to the mechanisms by which religious cognition may regulate empathetic responses to others.

Sleep and Tau Pathology in Vietnam War Veterans with Preclinical and Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: The increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and lack of effective medications has led to a need to identify modifiable risk factors as targets for interventions. Objective: In this cross-sectional study, we sought to determine whether worse sleep quality is associated with increased pathological tau, and whether this relationship is affected by amyloid pathology. Methods: 66 male participants underwent Florbetapir (AV45) positron emission tomography (PET) and Flortaucipir (FTP) PET and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire (PSQI) as part of the Department of Defense Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a multicenter study collecting data from Vietnam War veterans, some of whom have a history of post-traumatic stress disorder, or non-penetrating traumatic brain injury. AV45 PET was used to determine the presence of significant amyloid pathology. We used regression models to determine the effects of amyloid pathology and PSQI on tau deposition in brain regions associated with Braak stages. Results: Among the 66 participants, 14 individuals were amyloid positive (21%) and 52 were amyloid negative (79%). In regions associated with Braak stages III-IV, there was a significant interaction of amyloid status on PSQI (β= 0.04, p = 0.003) with higher PSQI correlating with higher FTP SUVr in amyloid-positive individuals only (β= 0.031, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Our study found that an AD profile of tau deposition was associated with an interaction between self-reported sleep quality and amyloid pathology such that worse self-reported sleep was related to higher tau in regions usually associated with AD progression, but only in individuals with high cerebral amyloid deposition.

Post-War Tourism in the Reconciliation Process of New Zealand Vietnam War Veterans

Tourism has the potential to act as a positive force in reconciliation efforts between countries. The basis of tourism in facilitating reconciliation is premised on people coming into contact with one another in non-adversarial settings, which support a higher probability that positive effects can result from this contact. The investigation on post-war tourism and its role in moving the reconciliation process forward has been limited. Since the Vietnam War ended, there has been a growing phenomenon of Vietnam War veterans returning to visit Vietnam. This chapter examines the impact of New Zealand Vietnam veterans' visits to post-war Vietnam on the reconciliation process with the Vietnamese and with self.

Classification of Mental Health among Korean Vietnam War Veterans: A Latent Profile Analysis

We investigated the dimensional structure of mental health among aging Korean Veterans using latent profile analysis (LPA) on posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD), late onset stress symptomology (LOSS), and psychosocial well-being (PWB). The Korean Vietnam War Veterans Study consists of 367 men (Mage=72, SD=2.66). LPA identified five classes of mental health as best fitting the data. Most men were in the normal (38%) and moderate distress (31%) groups, while smaller proportions were in the low affect (13%) and severe distress (7%) groups. The resilient group (12%) had low PTSD, medium LOSS, and high PWB, and were highest on optimism, positive appraisals of military service, and social support. Negative and positive aspects of mental health outcomes were on separate dimensions rather than on a single bipolar dimension. Service providers should attempt to both reduce Veterans’ negative psychological symptoms and increase psychosocial well-being. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Aging Veterans: Effects of Military Service across the Life Course Interest Group.

The Mental Health of Older Veterans Ages 58-99 Years: 2016-2017 VE-HEROeS Findings

Mental health and its correlates were examined in U.S. Vietnam War veterans approximately fifty years after the War. The 2016-2017 VE-HEROeS (Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study) was a mail survey of the health of U.S. Vietnam War veterans who served between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975 and matched US non-veteran controls. ‘Veteran status’ represented wartime experience for three cohorts: ‘theater’ veterans with service in Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos, non-theater veterans with service elsewhere, and non-veterans with no military service. Veterans and non-veterans, aged 58-99 years, were randomly selected from a veteran sampling frame (n=9.87 million) derived from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ USVETS dataset and a commercial address database, respectively. Questionnaires were mailed to 42,393 veterans and 6,885 non-veterans; the response rate for veterans was 45% (n=18,866) and 67% (n=4,530) for non-veterans. Weighted bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted to examine poor overall mental health, via the SF-8TM Mental Health Component Summary score (MCS), and other mental health measures by veteran status and socioeconomic, health, and other military characteristics. Nearly 50% of all theater veterans reported poor overall mental health (MCS<50). Prevalence of mental health measures was greatest for theater veterans and successively decreased for non-theater veterans and non-veterans. Key correlates significantly (P< 0.02) associated with poor MCS included veteran status, race/ethnicity, income, physical health, health perception, trauma, distress, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (Primary Care DSM-5 PTSD screen), and drug use. Results indicate a high burden of poor mental health among those who served in-theater.