Factors Associated with Depression on a Hospital Ship Deployed during the Persian Gulf War

Investigators surveyed health care providers (N = 250) deployed to the Persian Gulf on the USNS Comfort hospital ship days before the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1990. In this article, we identify factors associated with the development of depression during deployment. Age, gender, negative life events, stress from trauma-related work demands, and occupational experience with the dying and the dead were significant predictors of depression. Military training, although not associated with the experience of depression, was negatively correlated with concern about injury.