2.3. Health Symptom Checklist

The health symptom checklist is a 34-item self-report questionnaire assessing the presence and absence of bothersome health symptoms over the past 30 days. The symptoms spanned a range of body systems (e.g., cardiac, dermatological, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, neurological, neuropsychological, psychological, and pulmonary). Veterans were instructed to check “yes” if the symptom had been present or “no” if it had been absent, during the past 30 days. Number of self-reported health symptoms was summed for each Veteran.