Army rank and subsequent mortality by cause: 23-year follow-up.

Mortality among veterans has been studied in relation to military rank at separation in a series of 85,491 men discharged from the US Army in 1946 and traced through 1969. It was found that although the mortality of privates was very close to expectation based on population rates, non-commissioned officers had a 23% advantage and commissioned officers about a 40% advantage. The relative advantage of the veterans who had higher rank held not only for deaths from all causes but also for most of the specific causes examined and there was only a small tendency for the differences to diminish with the passage of time during the 23-year period of follow-up.