Psychiatric Disorder and Quality of Life in Female Survivors of the Iran-Iraq war; Three Decades after Injuries

Studies on the impact of war on female war victims are very limited. This population has been neglected for more than three decades, and this study aimed to determine nine domains of mental health using the SCL-90-R questionnaire and quality of life.

In this cross-sectional study, 138 female survivors of the Iran-Iraq (1980-1988) war suffer from disabilities were interviewed for psychological assessment and health-related quality of life in 2018. The "veterans and martyrs affair foundation" database information was used to assess via the SCL-90, health-related quality of life and SF-36 questionnaires.

Quality of life scores in female war survivors were significantly lower than the general female Iranian population (p<0.001). Females who suffered from chemical warfare injuries or being injured at younger ages had significantly lower mean SF-36 scores (p<0.01). Somatization, depression, hostility, and paranoid perceptions significantly affected the physical component scales and mental component scales (p<0.01). The results obtained from logistic regression analysis indicated that the Global Severity Index score was the most important determinant for both poor physical component summary (OR=0.18; 95% CI=0.87 to 0.37; p<0.001) and mental component summary (OR=0.13; 95% CI=0.06 to 0.30; p<0.001).

War-related stressors have strong negative associations with quality of life and psychiatric symptomatology rates.