• Felicia Mata-Greve, Shelley A Wiechman, Kara McMullen, Kimberly Roaten, Gretchen J Carrougher, and Nicole S Gibran.
• VA Puget Sound Health Care System Mental Health, 1660 S Columbian Way, Seattle, WA 98108, USA.
• Burns. 2022 Mar 1; 48 (2): 345354345-354.

AbstractResearch supports that people of color in the U.S. have poorer outcomes after burn injury compared to White individuals. The current study sought to explore burn health disparities by testing the relationship between racial and ethnic minority status, a proxy for systemic discrimination due to race and ethnicity, with two key constructs linked to functional outcomes, satisfaction with appearance and social community integration. Participants included 1318 burn survivors from the Burn Model System National Database (mean age = 40.2, SD = 12.7). Participants completed measures of satisfaction with appearance and social community integration at baseline, 6-, 12-, and 24-months after burn injury. Linear regressions revealed that racial and ethnic minority status significantly related to lower satisfaction with appearance and social community integration compared to White individuals at all time points. In addition, satisfaction with appearance continued to significantly relate to greater social community integration even while accounting for race and ethnicity, age, sex, burn size, and physical disability at 6-, 12-, and 24-month time points. Overall, the study supports that racial and ethnic minority burn survivors report greater dissatisfaction with their appearance and lower social community reintegration after burn injury.Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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