Comparative Investigation of Mental Health Status of Spouses of War Handicaps in Accordance with Husband's Disability

Background : In connection with specific situation of handicaps of war in terms of both mental and physical health, their wives are dealing with peculiar stresses. In this research the mental health status of war victims was investigated.

  Materials and m ethod : In a descriptive-analytical study, 100 spouses of handicaps of war from Zahedan (south-east of Iran) were selected during 2007, through systematic random sampling and they were assessed by GHQ-28 questionnaire and clinical interview.

  Results : In this regard the mean of whole scores as well as 70% of individuals' personal scores were higher than cut-off point (i.e. 24). ANOVA results did illustrate that through several variables, type of husband's disability had significant impact on the scores exclusively. The results of Tuky Post-Hoc test showed that the lowest mental health belonged to spouses of mentally disabled victims. Whereas, women whose husbands were handicapped both physically and mentally were placed in the second category. Furthermore, women whose couples had physical injury were in better mental health situation than the other groups.

  Conclusion : The level of mental health status of war victims' wives is low and it varies with regard to type of husbands' disability. This difference was concerned with the nature of husbands' symptoms and behaviors, besides in conformity with cognitive theories, the possibility of attribution to husbands’ behaviors instead of their hostility is explainable .