Pediatric burn patients suffer from various adverse outcomes following burn injuries. Recently, disparities affecting African American pediatric burn patients within U.S. hospitals have emerged. These disparities contribute to elevated adverse outcomes such as increased mortality, pain, severe complications, and higher susceptibility to infections posing significant health risks. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between race and elevated adverse outcomes in pediatric burn patients. We hypothesized that African American pediatric burn patients would experience an increased risk of adverse outcomes. This retrospective cohort study utilized the TriNetX Research Database. Pediatric burn patients who were 3 months, 6 months, and 1-year post-burn injury were included. Patients were divided into three cohorts: Cohort A who were African American, Cohort B who were White, and Cohort C who were Asian. Propensity score matching was used to create comparable cohorts based on age, gender, ethnicity, and burn severity. The primary outcomes included mortality, pain, hypertrophic scarring, inhalation injury, infection, and graft failure. Significant differences were found between the cohorts. African American burn patients had elevated risk of mortality (RR = 1.218, p=.0057), hypertrophic scarring (RR = 1.139, p<.0001), inhalation injury (RR = 2.201, p=.0338), infection (RR = 1.330, p=.0065), graft failure (RR = 2.090, p=.0003), and were less likely to report pain (RR = 0.662, p, 0.0001). African American patients in the pediatric population are associated with elevated rates of adverse post-burn injury outcomes. These findings highlight the need for enhanced burn injury treatment to minimize risks and improve patient outcomes.
Lewis et al. (Thu,) studied this question.