To determine the association of anxiety related to Index of religious moral beliefs (IRMB) and quality of life (QoL) of war veterans in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The sample consists of 59 male war veterans’ inpatients with clinically presented anxiety disorder and 45 controls that were observed as healthy regarding results of previous psychological testing. We applied the Bosnia-Herzegovina versions of Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25), Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) and Religious moral beliefs questionnaire (RMBQ).

Anxious war veterans were older (mean ± standard deviation = 42.5 ± 7.2) years than not anxious (37.6 ± 3.6) (F = 61.605, P < 0.001, ANOVA). The trauma experiences' mean score of war veterans was (mean ± standard deviation) 33.5 ± 12.5 with significant statistical differences between anxious (38.3 ± 12.9) and not anxious war veterans (27.3 ± 8.7) (F = 24.734, P < 0.001, ANOVA). Among anxious war veterans IRMB was significantly lower 39.9 ± 4.8 than among not anxious war veterans (42.6 ± 3.9) (F = 7.788, P = 0.006, ANOVA). QoL was significantly lower amongst anxious 38.8 ± 11.1 than among not anxious war veterans (65.4 ± 8.4) (F = 180.333, P < 0.001, ANOVA).

IRMB negatively associated with trauma experiencesaverage number, with severity of anxiety and positively correlated with level of QoL (Pearson's “r” = − 252, P = 0.015; Pearson's “r” = − 223, P = 0.031; Pearson's “r” = 337, P = 0.001, respectively).

Anxiety disorder of war veterans significantly decreased their quality of life. The religious moral beliefs may help protection of the mental health stability of war veterans' who are suffering because of anxiety disorder after surviving multiple war traumas and may help in prevention of decreasing of their QoL.