Health utilities in burn injury survivors: A systematic review. Issue 1 (February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Synodinou, Dafni; Savoie-White, Félix H.; Sangone, Alassane; Chang, Sue-Ling; Beaudoin Cloutier, Chanel; Bergeron, Frédéric; Guertin, Jason Robert
• Is Part Of: Burns. Volume 48:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 13
• Page End: 22
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Subjects: Burns -- Quality of Life -- Utility Scores -- Health Status -- Instrument -- Patient-Reported Outcomes; Burns and scalds -- Periodicals; 617.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.burns.2021.09.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-4179

Abstract

Highlights: Health related quality of life is low for burn injury survivors. Burn patients have lower health utility scores than the general population. Health utility scores for burn injured patients depend on the severity of the burn. Health utility scores for burn injury survivors increase over time. Abstract: Background: An estimated 11 million burn injuries with medical attention occur every year worldwide. Although potentially deadly, burn injuries are now considered a chronic disease with multiple lifetime physical and psychological sequelae. However, it remains unclear how these events affect patients' utility scores. We aimed to conduct a systematic review to summarize the utility scores of burn injury survivors. Methods: We conducted on March 18 th, 2020 a systematic review of the published literature using a search strategy designed in collaboration with a research librarian. Our search strategy aimed to identify studies that provided burn injury survivors' utility scores via a standardized indirect instrument. Results: We identified 15 studies that reported burn injury survivors' utility scores. Most studies used the EQ-5D instruments to assess patients' utility scores. Results varied substantially between studies, ranging from a low of 0.06 to a high of 0.972. Our review identified two key trends. First, utility scores seem to be negatively correlated with the severity of the burn injury. Second, utility scores in adults tend to increase in function of the time since injury. Conclusion: Unfortunately, due to differences in study design and settings, patient populations and instruments used to assess patients' utility scores, we were unable to combine all study results into a single value. In spite of this limit, results we identified support previous trends identified by others regarding the relationship between utility scores and the burn injury severity and/or the time since injury.