Health services satisfaction among chemical warfare survivors: A national survey from Iran

Background and It is important to quantify and refine the outcome of health care system. The aim of this study was to assess satisfaction of the health care and medical facilities in chemical warfare survivors of the Iran-Iraq war with lung complications. In This cross-sectional study, we recruited 292 Patients with lung injuries. This survey is a part of the national health monitoring project run by Veterans and Martyrs Affairs Foundation (VMAF). The mean age of the cases was 45.8 year (SD±7.6) with the age range of 27-75 years. 73.3% (n=214) and 68.5% (n=200) of the patients also had ocular and dermal complications, due to mustard exposure respectively. The cases reported more satisfaction of medical equipments and home physicians visits 84.3% and 68.3% respectively, and they were less satisfied from dental care 40%. and accessing to drug 28.5% The results of this study suggest that chemical warfare survivors had relatively proper satisfaction about health care services. It also has highlighted certain areas including: improving dental care services and facilitating the access of the chemical warfare survivors to their essential drugs.