title: Effects of Chronic Illness on the Quality of Life in Psychiatric out patients of the Iraq - Iran War.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on these findings, chronic conditions, especially respiratory problems, can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life in psychiatric war veterans.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Khodabakhsh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shahidi
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nejati
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karami
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Masoomi
keywords: chronic condition; health related quality of life; psychiatric veterans