Lost Work Due to Burn-Related Disability in a US Working Population

Background: Burn injuries can require hospitalization, operations, and long-term reconstruction. Burn-injured patients can experience short- or long-term disability. We investigated lost workdays (LWDs), short-term disability (STD), and long-term disability (LTD) in the 12-month period following a b...

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Main Authors: Jacob M. Dougherty, Hannan A. Maqsood, Christopher J. Rittle, Eva S. Blake, Zhaohui Fan, Bryant W. Oliphant, Mark R. Hemmila, Naveen F. Sangji
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:European Burn Journal
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1991/5/4/41
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Summary:Background: Burn injuries can require hospitalization, operations, and long-term reconstruction. Burn-injured patients can experience short- or long-term disability. We investigated lost workdays (LWDs), short-term disability (STD), and long-term disability (LTD) in the 12-month period following a burn injury. Methods: An observational cohort study was conducted using a commercial claims database, IBM<sup>®</sup> MarketScan<sup>®</sup>. Patients aged ≤65 years with an ICD-10 burn diagnosis from 2018 to 2019 were included. The International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), procedure and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes were used to identify patients undergoing burn-related operations. Patients were mapped to data tables for LWDs, STD, and LTD for the 12 months pre- and post-injury. Paired t-tests were employed to compare the pre- and post-injury outcomes. Results: We identified 1745 patients with burn diagnoses. Of those, 263, 1449, and 1448 patients had data available for LWDs, STD, and LTD, respectively. STD and LTD were reported by 8.1% and 0.0% of patients in the 12-month period pre-injury, respectively, and 20.3% and 1.0% of patients in the 12-month period post-injury, respectively. Average days of STD increased from 3.70 to 9.34 days following injury. Conclusions: Burn injuries are associated with increased STD and LTD utilization. Quantifying the impact of burn injuries on patients’ work will help us understand the economic implications of burns, which is a key area in burn research.
ISSN:2673-1991