What influences the functional outcome of children at 6 months post-burn?

The contribution of demographic, injury, pre-morbid, and parent factors to a child’s functional outcome at 6 months post-burn injury was examined. Sixty-eight children, aged 5–14 years with percent total body surface area (%TBSA) burns ranging from <1 to 35%, and their primary caregivers participated in the study. It was expected that pre-morbid and parent factors but not injury factors would have a significant impact on the functional outcome of children at 6 months post-burn. Injury factors included the percent of total body surface area burned, number of operative procedures, and source of the burn (i.e. flame burn, scald burn). Pre-morbid child factors included the presence or absence of behaviour problems, psychological or psychiatric problems, learning difficulty or developmental delay. Parent factors included anxiety, depression, coping processes, and social support. Whilst investigating the contribution of these factors to functional outcome, the effect of demographic factors (i.e. age, gender, family socioeconomic status, and the number of previous hospitalizations) was controlled for and investigated. Analyses included two hierarchical multiple regression analyses that supported the expected results. R was significantly different from zero at the end of each step in both hierarchical regression analyses, indicating that each group of factors added significantly to the fit of the model. After step 4 in the final regression model with all independent variables in the equation, R=0.85, F(18,49)=6.89, P<0.001.