The role of personal social networks in social participation for adult burn survivors: A cohort study

Abstract

Objective

To describe the structure and composition of personal social networks in burn survivors and examine their associations with social participation.

Design

A 6-month cohort study.

Setting

Community.

Participants

23 adult burn survivors.

Main Measures

Participants completed the Personal Network Survey and Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation Social Interactions and Social Activities short forms at baseline, 3-month, and 6-month. Personal Network Survey assesses individual social network in two categories: network structure depicts the architecture of social connections, while network composition describes the characteristics of network members. Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation measures social participation after burn injury.

Results

The average age of the 23 participants was 49.1 (SD 12.5) years, with an average of 45.0% (SD 25.9%) total body surface area burned. Friends and family were the major relationship types, while camaraderie, emotion, and advice were the major support types. Multilevel models results showed that within-person smaller (β=−0.91; 95% CI = −1.48, −0.33; p = .004) and more close-knit (β=−1.29; 95% CI = −2.22, −0.37; p = .009) networks, as well as between-person networks in which burn survivors had fewer advisors (β=-40.97; 95% CI = −69.56, −12.38; p = .008) and received less health support (β=−20.35; 95% CI = −37.91, −2.79; p = .030), were significantly associated with better social participation.

Conclusion

The findings advance the current understanding of burn survivors’ social networks and their impact on social participation and lay the foundation for developing targeted strategies to promote social engagement and well-being by optimizing network composition and the balance of received support.