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Title: Military Service, Combat Exposure, and Health in Retirement

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2010

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Abstract: Military service has traditionally been the domain of healthy, robust males, butservice can also reflect risk preference and socioeconomic status. Service also raisesthe probability of exposure to violence through combat, a significant stressor, and itmay represent other types of treatments as well, both positive and negative. We mightexpect to find an ambiguous relationship between military service and later-life health,and several recent studies support this. In this paper, we explore the relationshipbetween combat exposure and health past age 50 in the Health and Retirement Study,a rich longitudinal panel including many male veterans that now asks about combatexposure in its core survey. Using regression analysis and an instrumental variablesapproach, we show that combat exposure harms mental health and emotional well-being and raises a biomarker of stress at older ages, but it appears often to havenegligible effects on a wide array of physical health metrics.

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Authors: Edwards, Ryan D.; MacLean, Alair

Publisher: Northern Illinois University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health

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