Military Service Roles and ALS Among Veterans: A Matched Case–Control Study

Asaf Honig; Roy Dayan; Amir Knaani; Hagai Levine; Marc Gotkine

doi:10.1002/acn3.70079

Military Service Roles and ALS Among Veterans: A Matched Case–Control Study

Asaf Honig, Roy Dayan, Amir Knaani, Hagai Levine, Marc Gotkine^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

While military service is an established risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it remains unclear whether this association is linked to combat. We conducted a matched case–control study comparing 191 ALS patients who were veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with known military service type and 1910 matched controls. The ALS group had higher rates of combat service (46.0% vs. 22.7%) and parachuting (10.5% vs. 1.1%) in comparison with controls (p < 0.001 for both). In a multivariate model, combat service was associated with ALS (odds ratio 2.49, confidence interval [1.49–4.16], p < 0.01). The higher prevalence of combat roles among ALS patients expands our understanding of military service factors that contribute to ALS risk.

Original language	English
Journal	Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.70079
State	Accepted/In press - 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Neurological Association.

Keywords

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
exercise
military service
motor neuron disease (MND)
veterans

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Cite this

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title = "Military Service Roles and ALS Among Veterans: A Matched Case–Control Study",

abstract = "While military service is an established risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it remains unclear whether this association is linked to combat. We conducted a matched case–control study comparing 191 ALS patients who were veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with known military service type and 1910 matched controls. The ALS group had higher rates of combat service (46.0\% vs. 22.7\%) and parachuting (10.5\% vs. 1.1\%) in comparison with controls (p < 0.001 for both). In a multivariate model, combat service was associated with ALS (odds ratio 2.49, confidence interval [1.49–4.16], p < 0.01). The higher prevalence of combat roles among ALS patients expands our understanding of military service factors that contribute to ALS risk.",

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AU - Gotkine, Marc

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Military Service Roles and ALS Among Veterans: A Matched Case–Control Study

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