Long-Term Social Reintegration Outcomes for Burn Survivors With and Without Peer Support Attendance: A Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation (LIBRE) Study.
Brian Grieve, Gabriel D Shapiro, Lucy Wibbenmeyer and 7 others
PMID 29097179WHAT IT FOUND
Burn survivors who reported attending peer support groups scored better on social interaction, activities, and work.
When researchers accounted for sex, burn size and time since injury, the social interaction association remained. That is association, not proof.
Key findings
01Peer support attendance was associated with higher scores on 3 of the 6 social reintegration scales.
02After adjustment for sex, burn size, and time since injury, the Social Interactions association remained.
03On the Social Interactions scale, survivors attending peer support reported higher scores more often on items about making friends, dressing to avoid stares, and going to community events.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it can show that peer support attendance and better social outcomes occurred together, but it cannot show that peer support caused better outcomes. People who chose to attend peer support may have had other traits or resources that already made social recovery easier. The attendees had a mean burn size of 43.4% TBSA compared with 36.8% TBSA for nonattendees, and 50% were more than 10 years from injury compared with 42.5%. Recruitment through peer support groups and burn congresses may have overrepresented people already engaged in peer support. Peer support attendance was measured by one yes-or-no question, so timing, type, and amount of support were not captured. The sample was mostly white (463 of 596, 77.7%), which may limit how well results apply to other groups. Five participants were excluded because peer support status was missing.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest statement. The article is tagged as supported by U.S. Government Public Health Service.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that peer support caused better social recovery. The study only compared people who already reported attendance with people who did not, and the attending group had larger burns and longer time since injury.