The effects of anxiety and total body surface area burn on functional limitations: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Burn is one of the most traumatic injuries globally. The leading cause of the burn is fire, gas cylinder blast, electric shock and chemical burn. Burn survivors face a number of physical and psychological problems including contractures, altered appearance, functional limitations, emotional distress etc. for an extended period of time. This study was designed to find out the effects of anxiety on functional limitations in burn survivors in hospitalized patients in Peshawar.

Material & Methods:  A cross-sectional survey was carried out at Burns and Plastic Surgery Center, Peshawar Pakistan from June to November 2023. A total of 192 participants were included in the study using nonprobability convenience sampling. Anxiety was checked by anxiety component of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale and functional limitations by the Modified Barthel Index (Shah version). Significance and association were calculated by using SPSS 25.0.

Results: The anxiety (P=0.001) found to be significantly associated with functional limitation in burn survivors. In addition, an inverse Pearson correlation was found between HADs anxiety scores and Modified Barthel index scores (r = −0.307). The Total Body Surface Area (P= 0.114) found to be not associated with anxiety in burn survivors.

Conclusion: The study confirms that anxiety significantly affects functional activities while Total Body Surface Area has is not correlated to anxiety in burn survivors.