1. Burn Patients and Mental Health: A Matched Cohort Study.
- Author
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Kang-Auger G, Borsuk DE, Low N, Ayoub A, Auger N, and Buteau S
- Abstract
Objective: To determine the association between burns and hospitalization for mental health disorders up to three decades later., Summary Background Data: Burns are associated with pain, disability, and scarring, but the long-term impact on mental health is unclear., Methods: We analyzed a cohort of 23,726 burn patients aged ≥10 years who were matched to 223,626 controls from Quebec, Canada, between 1989 and 2022. The main exposure was admission for a burn. We followed patients during 3,642,206 person-years of follow-up to identify future hospitalizations for psychiatric disorders, substance use disorders, and suicide attempts. We estimated adjusted hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between burns and subsequent mental health hospitalization using Cox proportional hazards regression., Results: Burn patients had 1.76 times greater risk of mental health hospitalization over time (95% CI 1.72-1.81), compared with controls. Associations were present regardless of burn site, but were greatest for burns covering ≥50% of the body (HR 3.29, 95% CI 2.61-4.15), third degree burns (HR 2.04, 95% CI 1.94-2.14), and burns requiring skin grafts (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.90-2.10). Compared with controls, burn patients had more than two times the risk of hospitalization for eating disorders (HR 3.14, 95% CI 2.50-3.95), psychoactive substance use disorders (HR 2.27, 95% CI 2.17-2.39), and suicide attempts (HR 2.42, 95% CI 2.23-2.62). Risks were particularly elevated within 5 years of the burn, but persisted throughout follow-up., Conclusions: Burns are associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for mental health disorders up to 30 years later., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding : GK-A has received a grant from the Quebec Network on Suicide, Mood Disorders and Related Disorders. NA has received a grant (#PJT-191702) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and a grant (#296785) from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé. For the remaining authors none were declared., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)
- Published
- 2024
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