Physical and Mental Illness in Capable in Compare to Disable Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury is one the diseases that Iran-Iraq war veterans are suffering from it. These lesions can cause problems for the veterans. In addition, due to the inactivity of spinal cord injury, other complications such as skin diseases, kidney diseases, psychological disorder can occur. In this study we investigated the disability and diseases caused by spinal cord injury in war veterans. This was a cross-sectional study that conducted in a Alzahra hospital, Iran. All records of war veterans were gathered from their files that saved in the archive of hospital. The collected data including demographic indicators, disability and associated diseases was analyzed by SPSS15. 201 spinal cord injured patients were studied. The mean age of studied population was 42.3 ± 5.7 years. Only 27.4% of them have a complete ability to doing their personal affairs. In 66.7% of the veterans exercise was conducted by themselves or a physiotherapist. Acording to results of this study 36.3% have a metabolic disorder, 51.7% suffered to urinary tract infection, 64.9% have muscolo skeletal disorders, and 21% have a kind of psychological diseases. The frequency of kidney infections, metabolic, psychological, musculoskeletal and skin disorders were significantly higher in veterans with disabilities. Our findings show that physical and mental illness were more frequent in disabled veterans. Therefore, it seems that rehabilitation program with emphasis on physical activity, psychiatric counseling and health promotion classes is suitable for disabled veterans.