Iranian Journal of War and Public Health

Background:Sulfur mustard (SM), also known as mustard gas,was widelyused by the Iraqi army during the Iraq-Iran war. The aim of this study was to comparing quality of sleep between SM exposed from Sardasht and unexposed from Rabat.

Methods: This historical cohort study was conducted on 320 civilians of Sardasht and Rabat in two age matched groups, including 240 SM exposed participants from Sardasht and 80 unexposed subjects from Rabat. Quality of sleep over the last month was determined using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). PSQI is a self-report instrument used to evaluate the quality and patterns of sleep.

Results:In all 500 participants were studied (320 exposed and 80control groups). There were no significant difference in terms of age and education between the control and exposed groups. There were significant differences in sleep quality (P = 0.001), sleep latency (P = 0.020), sleep disturbances (P < 0.001), sleep medication (P = 0.001) and total of PSQI (P = 0.001) between control and exposed groups.

Conclusions:SM exposure led to lower quality of sleep inchemical survivors compare to control group.The findings from this study might be essential for health care systems, and for providing appropriate set-up and suitable educations programs may help to improve quality of sleep in these populations.