Background: Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) have a lower health related quality of life (HRQOL) in comparison with both healthy controls and the normal population. The aim of this study was to compare HRQOL between two groups of veteran and non-veteran SCI patients. Methods: Male paraplegic non-veterans who had sustained complete SCI before the year 1988 and were residents of Tehran province, Iran, and a similar group of SCI veterans were enrolled in this study. The participants were interviewed based on the Iranian version of SF-36 questionnaire by two psychologists. Eight sub-scales and two physical and mental component summaries of the instrument were assessed. We used chi-square, odds ratio, Mann-Whitney U, independent t-test, and linear regression for analysis. Results: Overall, 25 veterans and 22 non-veterans were enrolled in the study. The mean age, time since injury, and presence of comorbid illnesses were not signifi cantly different between veterans and non-veterans. A greater number of veterans were married (P=0. 003) and employed (P=0. 047). On average, veterans had more years of formal education than non-veterans (P=0. 001). The mean (SD) bodily pain sub-scale was 72. 73(31. 253) for non-veterans and 49. 7(28. 287) for veterans (P=0. 011). Absence of comorbid illnesses was associated with a better physical component summary (P<0. 001). Employment was associated with a better mental component summary (P=0. 022). Conclusions: We did not fi nd any difference in HRQOL between the two groups except for the bodily pain sub-scale. Further studies with larger sample sizes are recommended.