Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Quality of Life of Iranian Veterans' Wives

Background and Aim: Iranian veterans have suffered spinal cord, chemical, psychological, and amputation injuries due to the eight-year war in Iraq, which has necessitated long-term care. Most caregivers are their spouses. In this study, the overall quality of life score of the wives of Iranian veterans has been estimated. Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the databases of Scientific Information Database (SID), MagIran, PubMed, ISI, and Scopus were searched with the keywords war veteran, quality of life, Iran, and their combinations without time limit. Data were analyzed using meta-analysis and random-effects model. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed by I2 test. Meta-regression was used to investigate the relationship between quality of life score with the year of publication and sample size of articles. Results: Fourteen studies with a sample size of 2905 people were analyzed. The pooled score of quality of life of veterans’ wives was 59.86% (95% CI: 48.20-71.51) in the physical dimension and 57.67% (95% CI: 46.81-68.53) in the psychological dimension. The highest and lowest scores of quality of life of veterans’ spouses in the physical dimension were related to the subscales of physical function (58.72%, 95% CI: 42.74-50.94)) and pain (43.55, 95% CI: 34.69-52.42), respectively; and in the psychological dimension were related to the subscales of social performance (53.56%, 95% CI: 42.43-64.70) and psychological role limitation (41.52%, 95% CI: 36.52-46.29). Conclusion: Veterans' wives have a relatively low quality of life due to intensive and long-term care of veterans, and it seems necessary to pay more attention to this group.