Effects of Chronic Illness on the Quality of Life in Psychiatric out patients of the Iraq - Iran War

Quality of life measures can provide an important source of medical information for promoting the health status of chronically ill patients. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate health related quality of life in psychiatric veterans of the Iraq- Iran war of the 1980s. They were out patients diagnosed with various psychiatric symptoms. The present study used a cross sectional design, in which 971 psychiatric veterans were selected by Systematic-randomized sampling and evaluated using the SF36 questionnaire. Findings revealed that veterans who suffered from one or more chronic conditions/illnesses reported significantly more bodily pain and significantly less vitality, mental and general health compared to those veterans without chronic conditions. Moreover, specific aspects of poor quality of life were more salient in specific chronic conditions/illnesses than others. Based on these findings, chronic conditions, especially respiratory problems, can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life in psychiatric war veterans.