Miss Tanesha Dimanopoulos², Dr Lisa  Martin³, Dr Fear Mark¹, Dr Fiona Wood^1,2,3

¹Fiona Wood Foundation, Murdoch, Australia, ²Burn Service of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia, ³University of Western Australia, Burn Injury Research Unit, Crawley, Australia

Abstract:

Background
Acute burn injury negatively impacts long-term health (Duke et al., 2018). The Paediatric Burns Biobank based at Perth Children’s Hospital aims to better understand these impacts. It is important that we are able to generalise our biobank findings to the wider paediatric burn population, however sampling bias may occur for various reasons (Henrich et al., 2010). This analysis aimed to investigate the representativeness of the Perth Children’s Hospital biobank cohort compared to the whole cohort of paediatric burn patients requiring longitudinal follow up.

Methods
A retrospective analysis of all paediatric burns admissions who underwent acute surgical management was conducted between August 2019 and August 2020. Data from 126 children were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) and t-tests and chi² tests were used to compare demographic and clinical injury data between Biobank participants to BRANZ patients.

Results
No significant differences were found between groups for the age, gender, Indigenous status. Additionally, no significant difference between circumstances of injury was found. Burn depth, surgery type and length of hospital admission did not differ between groups, however total body surface (TBSA) was significantly greater for the Biobank participant (p = 0.025).

Conclusion
Biobank participants have a similar demographic profile as BRANZ patients. Clinical characteristics are also similar with the exception of TBSA. This increases the ability to understand how the findings from the study can be generalised. This preliminary analysis will be expanded for the final presentation of findings.

Reference list
Duke, J., Randall, S., Vetrichevvel, T., McGarry, S., Boyd, J., Rea, S. & Wood, F. 2018. Long-term mental health outcomes after unintentional burns sustained during childhood: a retrospective cohort study. Burns and Trauma, 6, 1-10.
Henrich, J., Heine, S. & Noranzayan, A. 2010. The weirdest people in the world? Behavioural and Brain Scientists, 33, 61-83.

Biography:

Tanesha is a research assistant at the Fiona Wood Foundation. She has a background in psychology and public health, considerable experience in medical administration and a passion for the health and research sector. Based at Perth Children’s Hospital, you will find her on the Burns ward or in clinic coordinating the clinical part of the Biobank project.