Quality of life among Syrian patients with war-related lower limb amputation at the Military Hospital in Lattakia.
Frial Mahmoud Nizamli
PMID 32817852WHAT IT FOUND
Among 65 Syrian men with war-related lower limb amputation, social relationships had the lowest quality-of-life scores; financial support and employment were linked with better scores.
This is descriptive, not proof that jobs or aid improve recovery.
Key findings
01Patients rated social relationships as their lowest quality-of-life domain (mean 6.64) and environment as their highest (mean 15.86).
02Patients with financial support scored higher in physical health, psychological and environment domains than those without (P = 0.001, 0.001, <0.001).
03Employed patients and those more than 4 years after amputation had higher psychological domain scores than others (P = 0.026, 0.027).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study used a convenience sample of 65 men from one hospital in Syria, so it may not apply to women, other regions, or other war-related amputee populations. The sample size was not calculated, and four subjects had uncompleted questionnaires, so some group comparisons may be unstable. The design is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that financial support, employment, duration since amputation, or unilateral versus bilateral amputation caused better or worse quality of life. Quality of life was self-reported with the WHOQOL-BREF; the scale has no cut-off point, and the paper reports domain means but not a total score. The paper's text and table disagree on which domains differed by cause of amputation. The study excluded patients with open wounds or amputation from neurological or vascular causes, so it does not describe those groups.
Declared interests
The author declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the higher scores in patients with financial support or employment as proof that giving money or a job improves quality of life. The study is cross-sectional and only compares groups at one time.