Quality of life and predictors of long-term outcome after severe burn injury

The aim of this study was to identify the long-term quality of life after severe burn injury. In a prospective longitudinal design, N = 265 burn patients were examined 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after burn injury. A multilevel approach was used to measure stability and change in self-reported health status. Besides injury-related variables, self-report instruments included measures of quality of life, psychological distress, personality, and specific burn outcome measures. Fitting of unconditional growth models indicated that there was significant intra- and inter-individual variation in self-reported physical and mental health short form-12. Over the course of 3 years, participants reported on average a slight improvement of physical quality of life. Physical health was mainly predicted by mobility and level of burn severity. Variance in mental health status was mainly predicted by gender, mobility, neuroticism, level of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related avoidance. Thus mobility (i.e., simple abilities) seems a crucial variable for overall quality of life. An early identification and treatment of patients with high levels of depression and PTSD-related avoidance may contribute to better mental health.