Citation

Saret CJ, Ni P, Marino M, Dore E, Ryan CM, Schneider JC, Kazis LE. J. Burn Care Res. 2019; 40(5): 669-677.

Affiliation

Boston University School of Public Health, Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Burn Association, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1093/jbcr/irz076

PMID

31069384

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Work integration and retention after burn injury is a key outcome. Little is known about how burn survivors reintegrate into the workplace. This paper compares scores on the Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation (LIBRE) Profile, a burn-specific measure of social participation, between burn survivors and general population samples, focusing on the Work & Employment domain.

METHODS: Convenience samples of burn survivors and the U.S. population were obtained. Differences in demographic and clinical characteristics and LIBRE Profile scores were assessed. To examine Work and Employment, we compared Family and Friends, Social Activities, and Social Interactions scores among working vs non-working burn survivors.

RESULTS: 601 burn survivors (320 employed) and 2,000 US residents (1101 employed) were surveyed. The mean age (p=0.06), distributions of gender (p = 0.35), and Hispanic ethnicity (p=0.07) did not differ significantly. Distributions of race (p < 0.01) and education (p=0.01) differed significantly. The burn survivor sample had higher scores, demonstrating higher participation, for Work & Employment (mean=49.5, SD=9.42) than the general sample (mean=46.94, SD=8.94) (p<0.0001), which persisted after adjusting for demographic characteristics. Scores on the three domains administered to all respondents were higher (p<0.001) for working than non-working burn survivors.

CONCLUSION: Distributions indicated higher social participation in the burn survivor sample than the general sample. Possible explanations include sample bias; resilience, post-traumatic growth, or response-shift of survivors; and limitations of using items in the general sample. Working burn survivors scored higher than those not working. Future work can explore factors that mediate higher scores and develop interventions.

© American Burn Association 2019. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Language: en

Keywords

employment; return to work; social participation