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Abstract Introduction Racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes for surgical trauma populations has been an expanding field in recent years. Despite this, disparities in prevention, treatment, and recovery outcomes for burn patients of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds have not been well-studied. Our study aims to review the literature regarding risk factors and burn outcomes among racial and ethnic minority populations to develop culturally-tailored burn care for minority burn patients. Methods A systematic review of literature utilizing PubMed was conducted for articles published between 2000–2020. Searches were used to identify articles that crossed the burn term (burn patient OR burn recovery OR burn survivor OR burn care) and a race/ethnicity and insurance status-related term (race/ethnicity OR African-American OR Asian OR Hispanic OR Latino OR Native American OR Mixed race OR 2 or more races OR socioeconomic status OR insurance status). Inclusion criteria were English studies in the U.S. that discussed disparities in burn injury outcomes or burn injury risk factors associated with race/ethnicity. Results 1,031 papers were populated, and 38 articles were reviewed. 26 met inclusion criteria (17 for adult patients, 9 for pediatric patients). All but 4 of the included papers were written in the last 10 years. 17 of the 26 articles describe differences in outcomes or risk factors for Black Americans, 8 discuss Latinx, 5 discuss Native Americans, 3 discuss Asian Americans, and 1 referred to “Non-White” minorities, collectively. Majority of studies showed that racial and ethnic minorities (vs. Whites) exhibited poorer burn injury outcomes such as higher mortality rates, greater scar complications, and longer duration for length of stay. Conclusions Few studies exist on outcomes for minority burn populations. Interestingly, most have been published in the last 10 years, which may indicate a trend in increased awareness. There is also a discrepancy in which minorities are included in each study with the least amount of data collected on Asian, Latinx, and Native American communities. More research with a larger base of minority populations will help further investigate this problem and develop better culturally-appropriate burn treatment.
Peters et al. (Thu,) studied this question.