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PREFACE
In June 1988, the first Conference on Epidemiology in Military and Veteran Populations was held in Washington, D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences. That conference brought together a number of speakers on a variety of topics and produced, as a byproduct, several ideas for epidemiologic studies. The success of that first conference led to a second.
It was suggested that the proceedings of the second conference, when held, might be published. With the generous sponsorship of the Institute of Medicine and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the second conference was held; with their continued help these proceedings are now being brought to print. In the interest of simplicity, the papers from these proceedings are being reproduced as submitted, without further copy-editing.
The obvious reason for publishing such proceedings is to bring the presentations at the conference to the attention of a wider audience, but here there are, in fact, two such audiences. A great deal of epidemiologic work in military and veteran populations is dispersed among a large number of independent organizations. One purpose of the proceedings is to make these organizations more aware of the relevant work of their colleagues in other settings; this is the first audience.
The second, even wider, audience is the community of all epidemiologists. Although there are some research issues and specific methodologies of primary interest only to those who study military and veteran populations, to a considerable degree the interests and practices of those who study such populations are the same as those of other epidemiologists. It is important that the wider community of epidemiologists is informed of and, in turn, informs the work of the smaller community doing epidemiologic research in military and veteran populations. The publication of these proceedings may assist in serving that end.
In closing this preface, let me offer my thanks to Dr. William Page, editor of these proceedings and planner of the conference. Let me also thank my colleagues, the members of the Medical Follow-up Agency 's oversight committee, the Committee on Epidemiology and Veterans Follow-up Studies (list follows), for their assistance and support, as well as Dr. Samuel Thier, President of the Institute of Medicine, and Dr. Enriqueta Bond, its Executive Director, for their support and sponsorship. Thanks are, in addition, due to a number of persons on the Agency's staff who helped arrange travel, type letters and memos, and so forth--it is they who made the conference run smoothly. Finally, let me thank the presenters for their talks at the conference and their subsequent papers.
Richard D. Remington, Chairman
Committee on Epidemiology and Veterans Follow-up Studies
COMMITTEE ON EPIDEMIOLOGY AND VETERANS FOLLOW-UP STUDIES
Richard D. Remington, Ph.D.
University of Iowa
Dan G. Blazer, M.D., Ph.D.
Duke University Medical Center
Ethel S. Gilbert, Ph.D.
Battelle Memorial Institute
Michel A. Ibrahim, M.D.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lawrence F. McMahon, Jr., M.D., M.P.H.
University of Michigan Medical Center
Paul D. Stolley, M.D.
University of Pennsylvania
H. Eldon Sutton, Ph.D.
University of Texas at Austin
Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D.
Columbia University