Correlation Between Health-Related Quality of Life in Veterans With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury and Their Caregiving Spouses

BACKGROUND: Recently, investigations have indicated that caring of a chronically ill family member strongly influences the health status and the quality of life (QOL) of the caregiving family members. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between health-related QOL of veterans with chronic spinal cord injury and their caregiving spouses. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We designed a cross-sectional study including two groups; veterans with chronic spinal cord injury and their caregiving wives who were living in the city of Mashhad, Iran. The patients with spinal cord injury were veterans from the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). All the participants filled out the short form 36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire. A Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the scales of the two groups. RESULTS: The mean age and standard deviation of veterans and their spouses were 48.5 ± 5.9 and 44.8 ± 7.2, respectively and their number of children ranged between 0-6. Our data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in some domains of the SF-36, including PF, MH, PCS, MCS, BP and GH (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in RP, VT, SF and RE between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that a decrease in health status level of veterans, physically and mentally, can affect the health-related QOL of their caregiving spouses.