Background:

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Occupation is a significant factor in life

health and well-being. Long-term military service is a unique career path that may influence life expectancy

even after excluding obvious risks such as battlefield mortality. However

it remains unclear what the effects of a military career are on the life trajectory of personnel who retire from service. We aimed to compare life expectancy among retired military personnel (RMP) to their sex- and birth cohort-specific reference populations.

Methods:

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For this historical-cohort study we collected data on sex

year of birth

year of death

time in service

and rank at end of service for 4

862 Israeli RMPs. Data on reference populations were provided by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

by birth decade from 1900 to 1989. We calculated the difference between each individual RMP's age at death and the "expected" age at death

based on sex- and birth cohort-specific means in the reference populations.

Results:

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Overall

67.9% of RMPs lived longer than average relative to their sex specific birth cohort. This difference in life expectancy was more pronounced among women than among men. There was a significant trend of increasing difference between RMP males and reference males over time (P<0.002)

whereas no significant trend was identified among females. Length of service and rank were not associated with relative longevity for RMPs.

Conclusions:

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The mechanism of the protective effect of military service on life expectancy remains unknown

but our findings indicate that it affects men and women differently

with women being more likely to benefit from the protective effect of military service. The healthy worker effect is known to vary from one occupation to another. To the best of our knowledge

this is the first attempt to quantify the magnitude of the healthy worker effect among career military servicemen and women.