Quality of Life, PTSD, and Insomnia in Patients with Burn Injuries

Burns are injuries with local and systemic responses that cause severe complications to all systems in human body. Patients with moderate or severe burn injury are likely, over time, to develop metabolic, motor, psychiatric, and social disorders. The aim of this study was to explore the quality of life, post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia in individuals with burn injuries.

This cross-sectional study included adults with burn injuries in any area of the body. The research tools were BSHS-B, 5Q-5D-5L, ABSI, AIS, and IES-R which also included variables from medical or nursing documentation and records as well as reports from patients. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 and analyses were conducted using SPSS statistical software (version 26.0).

In the present study were enrolled 45 outpatients with burns. The findings revealed that insomnia was significantly associated with lower scores in Simple Abilities (p = 0.006), Treatment Regimen (p = 0.033), Heat Sensitivity (p = 0.005), Affect (p < 0.001), Sexuality (p = 0.023), Interpersonal Relationship (p = 0.046) domains of the BSHS-B index, as well as with the total BSHS-B score (p = 0.004). Greater Avoidance (p = 0.050) and Hyperarousal (p = 0.011) domains, as also the total IES-R scores (p = 0.018) of the IES-R scale were significantly associated with lower Simple abilities score of BSHS-B index.

There is a clear and urgent need for the continuation of this study with a larger sample, representative of the population, and over an extended period of time to produce more sufficient and significant statistical results.