IMPACT OF BURN SEVERITY, TIME SINCE BURN AND AGE ON THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING OF WOMEN WHO HAD BURN INJURIES

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of burn severity, time since burn and age on the cognitive functioning of women who had burn injuries.

Study Design: Cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, from Nov 2017 to Jul 2018.

Methodology: The data were collected from females suffering burn injuries. The burn severity, time since burn and age were assessed to see their impact on cognitive functioning of women with burns injured. Further, Montreal Cognitive Assessment scale was used to measure the construct of cognitive functioning.

Results: Among a total of 200 burn victims, 52.5% had the severity level of third degree burns. A total of 75% victims had 6-15 months old burns and 64.5% belonged to age group of 19-34 years. The predictive association among variables based on difference of training and testing relative error (0.61) indicated the significant predictive relationship of burn severity, time since burn and age on the cognitive functioning of burn injured women. Further, relationship of burn severity, time since burn, and age was investigated. The relative importance of burn severity, time since burn and age in predicting cognitive functioning was 0.700, 0.163 and 0.136 respectively.

Conclusion: Burn severity, time since burn and age are the factors affecting the cognitive functioning of female burn victims. Whereas role of burn severity was more prominent than time since burn and age.