Early predictors of health-related quality of life outcomes at 12 months post-burn: ABLE study

There remains a paucity of evidence on the early predictors of long-term Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) outcomes post-burn in hospitalised adults. The overall aim of this study was to identify the factors (personal, environmental, burn injury and burn treatment factors) that may predict long-term HRQoL outcomes among adult survivors of hospitalised burn injuries at 12 months post-burn. A total of 274 participants, aged 18 years or over, admitted to a single state-wide burn centre with a burn injury were recruited. Injury and burn treatment information were collected from medical records or the hospital database and surveys collected demographic and social data. HRQoL outcome data were collected at 3-, 6- and 12-months using the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12 v1) and Burns Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B). Personal, environmental, burn injury and burn treatment factors were also recorded at baseline. Analyses were performed using linear and logistic regression. Among 274 participants, 71.5 % (N=196) remained enrolled in the study at 12 months post-burn. The majority of participants reported HRQoL outcomes comparable with population norms and statistically significant improvements in generic (SF-12 v1) and condition-specific (BSHS-B) outcomes over time. However, for participants with poor HRQoL outcomes at 12-months post-burn, Univariable predictors included longer hospital length of stay, unemployment at the time of injury, a diagnosed pre-injury mental health condition, inadequate pre-burn social support, intentional injury, recreational drug use pre-injury and female gender. The early multivariable predictors of insufficient HRQoL outcomes were female gender, a previously diagnosed mental health condition, unemployment, inadequate social support, intentional injury, and prolonged hospital length of stay. These results suggest potential factors that could be used to screen and burns patients for psychosocial intervention and long-term follow up.