Quality of life in Iranian chemical warfare veteran's

Abstract EN

Background : Mustard gas has different effects on different body systems such as respiratory tract, blood, gastrointestinal, skin, eye, endocrine and peripheral nervous system.

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of life in chemical warfare veterans due to sulfur mustard exposure.

Patients and Methods : In a cross-sectional and analytic study, 242 patients who had a chemical injury during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1983) and their lung damage was proven were investigated in our study.

The quality of life was measured in these patients using an extensively validated Iranian version of SF-36.

Results : The mean age of veterans was 44.12 ± 4.9 ranging from 22 to 62 years.

Our results showed that chemical warfare had a decreased quality of life in all subscales of the SF-36.

The lowest scores in SF-36 subscales were related to role physical and general health.

The data also showed a significant relationship between the number of organs involved and the quality of life in these patients (P < 0.001, r = −0.33).

So that the patients who had more than three organs involved had lower quality of life.

95.4 % of our participants experienced another complication with respiratory complication and the ophthalmologic complications were the most frequent accompanying condition.

Conclusions : The results imply that chemical warfare survivors suffering from late complications have a low health related quality of life.