Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC)

CSP #505: Millennium Cohort Study

CSP #505 is using data from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Millennium Cohort Study¹ and VA health care and benefits records to create resources that present a more complete picture of the military to civilian life cycle experienced by Veterans. These data can be used to identify potential causes of military, Veteran, and national healthcare problems, especially those stemming from military service, and to explore innovative and effective solutions.

Study Chair
Edward J. Boyko, MD, MPH
Edward.Boyko@va.gov

Project Manager
Lynne Liu, MPH
Lynne.Liu@va.gov  

Cyberseminars

Cyberseminars for 2024 are being planned and registration information will be posted here.

Past 

• Millennium Cohort Family Study: The Impact of Military Life (05-03-2023)
• Department of Defense Birth and Infant Health Research Program: An Overview (03-28-2023)
• Research on Active Duty Servicewomen and Women Veterans: Research Opportunities using the Millennium Cohort (01-11-2021) 
• Overview of the Millennium Cohort Study (MILCO): Opportunities for VA Investigators (10-29-2020)

Request access to data

Qualified researchers can request access to the merged Millennium Cohort – VA data for secondary data analysis. Data access is managed by CSP #505 staff in collaboration with the Millennium Cohort Study team at the DoD Naval Health Research Center (NHRC). 

After the initial access request, researchers are required to submit a study proposal. Those are reviewed on a quarterly schedule.

This page will be updated when future meeting dates and proposal submission deadlines (4-6 weeks before meeting date) are confirmed.

Publications

Castañeda SF, Belding JN, Kolaja CA, LeardMann CA, Jacobson IG, Rivera AC, Carey FR, Boparai S, Walstrom JL, Sheppard BD, Boyko EJ, Ryan MAK, Rull RP; Millennium Cohort Study Team. Cohort Profile Update: The US Millennium Cohort Study-evaluating the impact of military experiences on service members and veteran health. Int J Epidemiol. 2023 Aug 2;52(4):e222-e231. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyad088. PMID: 37348866.

Belding JN, Castañeda SF, Jacobson IG, LeardMann CA, Porter B, Powell TM, Kolaja CA, Seelig AD, Matsuno RK, Carey FR, Rivera AC, Trone DW, Sheppard B, Walstrom J, Boyko EJ, Rull RP, The Millennium Cohort Study: The First 20 Years of Research Dedicated to Understanding the Long-Term Health of US Service Members and Veterans.¹ Ann Epidemiol. 2021 Dec 11;67:61-72. doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.12.002. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34906635.

A summary of all publications is available at Millennium Cohort Study: Publications

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is the decision-making group who reviews and makes recommendations on all proposed study changes, use of study data, potential publications, and other operational parts of the study.

• Aaron Schneiderman, PhD, MPH – Director, Epidemiology Program, Health Outcomes of Military Exposures (HOME)
• Dawne Vogt, PhD, MA – Research Psychologist, Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD
• Mary Jo Pugh, PhD, MA – Career Research Scientist, Health Services R&D (HSR&D) Center of Innovation (COIN): Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences Center
• Rudolph Rull, PhD, MPH – Principal Investigator, Millennium Cohort Study
• Paul Shekelle, MD, PhD, MPH – Staff Physician, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

Ex Officio members

• Edward Boyko, MD, MPH - CSP #505 Study Chair
• Lynne Liu, MPH - CSP #505 Project Manager
• Victoria Davey, PhD, MPH - Associate CRADO for Epidemiology and Public Health
• Grant Huang, PhD, MPH - Deputy Chief of Research and Development Officer - Enterprise Optimization; Director - Cooperative Studies Program
• Nicholas L. Smith, PhD, MPH – Director, CSP #505 Coordinating Center, Seattle ERIC

Looking to the future

We have achieved our goal of creating ongoing, bilateral data sharing between CSP #505 and the Millennium Cohort Study. Data from the Millennium Cohort Study has also helped inform policy decisions that have allowed filing of VA disability claims for respiratory diseases. 

Looking forward, we're working to make Millennium Cohort Study data more accessible to VA investigators by establishing a Repository. 

DoD Millennium Cohort Study overview

The Millennium Cohort Study¹ launched in July 2001 and is conducted at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, CA. Study participation includes completing comprehensive questionnaires about health, lifestyle, and military experiences every three years. Questionnaire data is then linked with other data sources. The study plans to continue longitudinal follow-up and triennial data collection on participants for 65 years.

As of July 2019, 201,619 study participants have enrolled in the Cohort over the course of four enrollment panels. Initial participants were sampled from a cross-section of the entire military and included oversampling for women, Reservists, and those who had previously deployed to the conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, and SW Asia (the most recent deployments at that time).

Subsequent enrollment panels have focused on newer accessions to the military, while oversampling for women and Marines. The heightened operational tempo since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks precluded the need to oversample for deployers and Reservists in later enrollment panels. 

The Millennium Cohort Study expanded in 2011 to include the Millennium Cohort Family Study¹. The Family Study enrolled 9,872 spouses of Millennium Cohort Study participants from enrollment Panel 4. 

Millennium Cohort Study and Family Study both enrolled new panels in 2020-2021, with enrollment closing in August 2021. Over 58,000 new enrollees were added to the Millennium Cohort Study in Panel 5, and about 19,000 new enrollees were added to the Family Study in Panel 2.

DoD Millennium Cohort Study origin

The need for a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of military services members became apparent following the first Gulf War, when the lack of baseline data was a serious limitation to designing studies to assess Gulf War Illness. 

The Millennium Cohort Study was included in the 1999 Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act at the recommendation of several national agencies, including VA, DoD, the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, and the Institute of Medicine. It established “a longitudinal study to evaluate data on the health conditions of members of the armed forces upon their return from deployment.” 

CSP #505 Executive Committee meeting attendees (September 2023)
From left to right: Edward Boyko, Judith Harbertson, Neika Sharifian, Shauna Frank, Aaron Schneiderman, Felicia Carey, Elaine Hu, Lynne Liu, Sheila Castaneda, Nick Smith, Rudolph Rull, Mary Jo Pugh, Dawne Vogt, William Culpepper, Paul Shekelle, Grant Huang

¹ This link takes you to a non-U.S. government website created and maintained by the Department of Defense. VA isn't responsible for the content or privacy policies on that site and doesn't endorse the content or its sponsor.  

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