quality of life in iranian chemical warfare veteran's

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.