title: Long-term risk factors for impaired burn-specific health and unemployment in patients with thermal injury.
abstract: The success of acute burn therapy has led to an increased demand for high-quality rehabilitation. When optimizing burn care programs, knowledge of long-term risk factors associated with impaired health and unemployment of the patient may be significant. The health and work status of 95 patients (82.1% males; mean age 43.7 (S.D.: 14.5) years; mean total body surface burn 18.5 (S.D.: 14.2) % were assessed 47.0 (S.D.: 23.8) months after injury, using the Norwegian version of the abbreviated burn-specific health scale (BSHS-N) and a questionnaire asking for socio-demographic and medical characteristics. A regression model demonstrated that the BSHS-N total score was significantly reduced by chronic pain (P<0.001), psychological illness (P<0.001), and living alone (P=0.030), as well as full-thickness facial (P=0.011) and foot (P=0.013) burns. Unemployment was significantly associated with housing and economic problems (P=0.001), chronic pain (P=0.001), the extent of full-thickness injury (P=0.005), the presence of deformities (P=0.037), the number of operations (P=0.001) and the length of hospital stay (P=0.016). Thus, socio-demographic factors, non-burn-related morbidity and the injury itself significantly impaired long-term physical and psychosocial health and work status.
authors.affiliation: Section of Nursing Science, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Kalfarveien 31, N-5018 Bergen, Norway. asgjerd.moi@isf.uib.no
authors.forename: Asgjerd Litleré
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Moi
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wentzel-Larsen
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salemark
authors.forename: Berit Rokne
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Hanestad
mesh_terms: D002056:Burns / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*