Development and utilization of a psychometric instrument for measuring quality of life in burn patients, 1976 to 1996.

Our Burn Specific Health Scale was initially developed in 1978. Using a number of existing health scales, including the sickness impact profile, a depression scale, and the activities of daily living scale, and a large number of burn specific items derived from staff and patients, we eventually developed an 80 item instrument. This instrument was divided into four domains each containing 20 items of equal weight. The instrument was validated sequentially with intrarater, interrater and global validation systems, and subsequently compared with a number of other health and mental scales during which it performed very well. We now have longitudinal data which link this measurement system of quality of life to pre-injury educational level, to post-injury, stress disorder and predictability of return to work. The results indicate that total burn size has little to do with quality of life after recovery, and that a number of other factors play a bigger role, which will be presented.