RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Providing care for patients with chronic disability affects caregivers' social lives and relationships and can lead to poor health and lower quality of life. OBJECTIVES: In this study, our goal was to assess the quality of life in spouses of war veterans with bilateral lower limb amputations to find factors affecting caregivers' quality of life. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, spouses of 244 veterans with war-related bilateral lower limb amputations for at least one year were invited to participate in this study; 189 couples accepted to participate. Information about age, gender, education level, duration of time since amputation, duration of care provided by the spouses and SF-36 questionnaire for both veterans and their spouses were collected. RESULTS: The average age of spouses was 47 years and duration of care provided by spouses was 25 years. We found lower scores for general health domains in amputees' spouses compared to the general population. Factors correlated with both Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) included the duration of care, duration of marriage, spouses' education level and the veterans' PCS and MCS scores. Veterans' age, spouses' age and the number of children only correlated with PCS. Veterans' education level only correlated with MCS. In multivariable analysis, only spouses' education level correlated with MCS and the veterans' PCS only correlated with that of spouses. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of life of amputees and their spouses were closely correlated; therefore, any improvement in one is likely to improve the other. In addition, lower education level should be considered as a risk factor for poorer quality of life in amputees' spouses.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Iran-Iraq war (1980 to 1988) was one of the longest wars of the twentieth century. Few studies are available in the current literature evaluating the long-term results of proximal lower-extremity war-related amputations. The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to evaluate the current health-related quality of life and clinical musculoskeletal function of Iranian veterans with hip or hemipelvic amputation. METHODS: Seventy-six patients from a cohort of eighty-four veterans with hip disarticulation and transpelvic amputation participated in this study. A Persian version of Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) was completed for all of the veterans. RESULTS: The average duration of follow-up was 26.6 ± 3.7 years. The average age (and standard deviation) of the veterans was 44.1 ± 7.0 years. The average scores for the physical and mental health dimensions of the SF-36 were 45.85 ± 21.56 and 57.98 ± 25.19, respectively. These data indicate that the amputees were doing better in the mental domain than in the physical domain. Forty-five patients with a primary amputation (97.8%) and ten with a secondary amputation (33.3%) complained of pain in the amputation stump. CONCLUSIONS: Veterans with proximal lower-extremity amputation will need life-long care. Supervision starts with stump management and the application of appropriate surgical techniques at the time of the injury and continues with periodic examination throughout life.
