Relatively Healthy Male Veterans Observed Over Time to See What Types of Diseases Develop

The purpose of this study is to gather a mixed racial group of relatively healthy male Veterans (for example, White, African-American, and Hispanic), who are at least 50 years of age. These men will be followed to see what types of diseases they develop and to determine if racial differences in lifestyle, blood test results, or genes are related to the types of diseases that are found. Diseases of particular interest are prostate cancer, other cancers, cardiovascular disease (for example, heart attacks and stroke), high blood pressure and diabetes. The group to be followed will consist of about 16,000 men recruited from about 40 VA Medical Centers across the country. Each man will be followed for at least five years depending on when he enters the study.

Participants are asked to complete a set of forms to provide a brief medical history, demographics, information on lifestyle such as physical activities, smoking, and drinking, information on diet, and information on quality of life.

Subjects will be seen on a biannual basis with follow-up telephone interviews conducted during the intervening years. Follow-up telephone interviews will be conducted at the MAVERIC Call Center while follow-up clinic visits will take place at each SELECT site. In addition, VA clinical and administrative databases will be used to augment follow-up and confirm reported events.

During follow-up visits, participants will be asked whether they experienced any medical events since the last study visit, with information on specific diagnoses including prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, other cancers, stroke, myocardial infarction, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, chronic prostatitis, and benign prostatic hypertrophy. Confirmation of self-reported diagnosis will be made by an examination of discharge summaries, medical records, and available diagnostic and laboratory information by an end-points committee.

Recruitment for this observational cohort will proceed in parallel with recruitment for SELECT and can use SELECT staff and resources with very little additional burden in cost or staff time.

Inclusion criteria

• relatively healthy male Veterans
• at least 50 years old

Exclusion criteria

• Life expectancy of at least 5 yrs