ABSTRACT
Objectives: The study was planned to assess quality of life and factors affecting it in patients with burn injury. Methods: This is hospital based cross sectional study which involves 70 burn patients hospitalized to the department of surgery and plastic surgery of Rajindra Hospital, Government. Medical College, Patiala between May 07 and Aug 08. Details of burns were taken on semi-structured proforma. All patients underwent detailed psychiatric assessment using International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) and divided into two groups. Group A contains burn patients with psychiatric morbidity and remaining burn patients without psychiatric morbidity were included in Group B. Further, both groups were subjected to Quality Of Life Scale (QOL) to assess quality of life. Results: Quality of life was poor in burn injured patients and was affected by severity of burn injury. Psychiatric morbidity was found to be significant factor affecting quality of life in burn injury patients. Conclusion: The quality of life following burns must be assessed at every stage of their treatment for better adjustment.