title: Adolescent survivors of burn injuries and their parents' perceptions of recovery outcomes: do they agree or disagree?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study analyzed the concordance of parent and child in assessing the progress of child and adolescent survivors of burn injuries using health outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  The American Burn Association/Shriners Hospitals for Children Burn Outcomes Questionnaire (BOQ) was completed by 355 pairs of parents and their 11- to 18-year-old adolescents who experienced a burn injury. These patients completed BOQ child/parent questionnaire pairs at four regional pediatric burn care centers nationally during the first 4 years postburn. The BOQ includes 12 scales that range from physical to emotional health. Predicted recovery curves for each scale (dependent variable) were obtained from generalized linear models, with the independent variables the logarithmic transformation of the time since burn and parent/child as the principal indicator. Covariates included sociodemographics and clinical severity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean differences between the parent and adolescent scale scores were small, with few insignificant exceptions. Most of the recovery curves over time for the parent and the adolescent were undifferentiated, except for the outcome of appearance where the adolescent rating was better than that of the parent (p < 0.01) and itch was judged as worse than that of the parent (p < 0.01). School reentry was rated higher by the adolescent initially (p < 0.001), but after 18 months, it was rated higher by the parent (p = 0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Analysis of the BOQ completed by adolescents and their parents reveal similar estimates of recovery following the burn injury. These results suggest that the adolescent's reported outcomes can be used interchangeably with the parent's assessments, with the exception of appearance, itch, and school reentry, where there are some differences.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Medical Branch and Shriners Hospitals for Children-Galveston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Walter J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Austin F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Lewis E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Kazis
authors.forename: Nien-Chen
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Sheridan
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Herndon
authors.forename: Michelle I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Hinson
authors.forename: Theresa K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Stubbs
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Kagan
authors.forename: Tina L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Palmieri
authors.forename: Ronald G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Tompkins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019985:Benchmarking; D002056:Burns / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life