Deployment to Iraq linked to higher asthma risk

During the early stages of the Iraq War a research team began investigating diagnoses of new-onset asthma among deployed soldiers. Their research finds that among the 6,233 troops on active duty from 2004-07, the rate of new-onset asthma was 6.6% for Iraq-deployed soldiers and 4.4% for stateside-based ones. A total of 290 new-onset cases were identified between both groups. The relative odds of coming back from deployment in Iraq with new-onset asthma was 1.58 times (or 158%) and this association held for both genders and all age groups. . read more.