title: Quality of life in caregivers of severely disabled war survivors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate quality of life (QOL) of caregivers of severely disabled war survivors and identify variables threatening caregivers' QOL.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was performed on 532 caregivers of Iran-Iraq war related injured survivors by using Persian version of 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Caregivers had lower QOL compared to the Iranian female population (p < .001). Caregivers of amputees had better SF-36 scores compared to caregivers of two groups of chemical warfare survivors (p ranging from .01 to <.001). Caregiving to chemical warfare and being married at the time of trauma were the independent predictors of poor QOL in both the physical component summary (OR = 5.08, 95% CI = 3.35-7.7; OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.37-0.89) and the mental component summary (OR = 4.12, 95% CI = 2.68-6.32; OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.40-0.98).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregivers of war veterans suffer from poor QOL. Chemical warfare agents contribute to more persistent poor QOL in caregivers than the injuries caused by conventional weapons.
authors.affiliation: Prevention Department, Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Batool
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.affiliation: Emam Hospital Emergency Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Hosein
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Seyed Hoseini Davarani
authors.affiliation: Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soroush
authors.affiliation: Prevention Department, Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran.|Students' Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Arsia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jamali
authors.affiliation: Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khateri
authors.affiliation: Emam Hospital Emergency Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Talebi
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Group, Health Metrics Research Center, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Montazeri
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000674:Amputees / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002618:Chemical Warfare; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D007493:Iraq; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel; D011788:Quality of Life; D019145:Rehabilitation Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans; D014857:Warfare
keywords: Disability; caregivers; quality of life; war