ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B) is a popular instrument to measure quality of life (QoL) in burn patients. The current study aims at identifying the prognostic variables for our burn population using the BSHS-RBA (revised, brief and adapted) scale. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on 60 post-burn patients using the BSHS-RBA scale. The questionnaire was administered by an interview as majority of patients were illiterate. The socio-demographic and clinical variables were analyzed against domain scores and total scores of the scale, using Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal Wallis test. RESULTS: The median age of the sample was 28 years, of which 60% were females. Their median TBSA burn was 30%. The median time since burn at the time of interview was 10 months. Higher scores were noted in the domains of simple abilities and mobility, hand function and interpersonal relationship, while poorer scores were recorded in domains of skin sensitivity and body image. DISCUSSION: The mean score in our study was 2.36, which is quite less as compared to reports from high income countries (range: 2.58-3.36). This study provides an insight on an aspect of burn care outcome, which can be reasonably expected in low income countries with the available standard of care. Being a female, presence of hand and face burn, requirement of corrective surgeries and inability to resume work were factors associated with poor QoL. CONCLUSION: Strategies to improve QoL of burn patients should target psychological aspects, work rehabilitation (early release of contractures) and skin hypersensitivity (including itching) to derive maximum benefit.
Subject(s)
Burns/psychology , Facial Injuries/psychology , Hand Injuries/psychology , Quality of Life , Return to Work , Activities of Daily Living , Adult , Body Image/psychology , Burns/complications , Burns/physiopathology , Contracture/etiology , Contracture/surgery , Female , Hand Injuries/physiopathology , Humans , India , Interpersonal Relations , Male , Prognosis , Pruritus/etiology , Pruritus/therapy , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The burn specific health scale-brief (BSHS-B) has found wide acceptance as a quality of life (Qol) assessment tool. However, BSHS has rarely been employed in a very low income country like India, where burns is endemic and burns are more severe. AIM: To modify, culturally adapt and to translate BSHS-B in Hindi. METHODS: Five questions were added to the original BSHS-B (40 questions). Two questions on walking and squatting were added to the domain 'simple abilities' which was renamed 'simple abilities and mobility'; a question on itching was added to domain of 'heat sensitivity' which was renamed 'skin sensitivity'; and two questions on family income and assets were added to the domain of 'work', which was renamed 'work and economic impact'. The modified assessment scale was accorded an acronym BSHS-RBA (revised brief and adapted). Twenty patients of thermal burns (mean age 30.95 yr) with mean TBSA burns of 39.75%, and who were between six months to a year from healing of burn wounds were included in this validation study. All questionnaires were filled by interviews. RESULTS: The kappa value for inter-rater variability was 0.748. The Cronbach's α for internal consistency of various domains ranged from 0.443 (simple abilities and mobility) to 0.908 (sexuality), the scale showed good discriminant validity in 31 of 36 domain correlations, which confirms the construct validity of the instrument. CONCLUSIONS: BSHS-RBA with five additional items, on mobility, economic impact and itch is a reliable and valid instrument. It is currently seen to be very useful in assessment of Qol in low income countries.
