The New Zealand nuclear veteran and families study, exploring the options to assess heritable health outcomes.

AIMS: To describe health conditions in New Zealand nuclear veterans and their offspring, and examine the utility of tests to assess their heritability. METHOD: An online survey, open to all veterans and offspring, with questions on health conditions, the GHQ12 to measure psychological distress, the Euroquol-5D visual analogue scale (EQ5D VAS) to measure health state, and free text items on veteran support. RESULTS: Eighty-three responses (56%) were from veterans, 65 (44%) from offspring. Anxiety and depression were prevalent in both groups, with cancers (n=31, 37%) and joint conditions common in veterans (n=26, 31%). Few offspring reported cancer, rather problems with fertility (n=18, 40%). The free text themes fell into four domains, official commitment, health, emotional and information support; however, little support had been sought. CONCLUSION: Cancers have utility in assessing heritability, but a low prevalence and lack of diagnostic data rules this out. Psychological conditions may be heritable, but the techniques to assess this are still developing. Chromosomal damage in veterans and offspring can be detected, but with present knowledge cannot explain health outcomes. Future work should assemble a veteran and family register with linkage to routine data-sets. Veterans and offspring should be encouraged to seek support.