Grip strength in children after non-severe burn injury.

PURPOSE

To characterise grip strength in children with non-severe burn injury, and further understanding of how demographic and clinical variables impact musculoskeletal recovery.

METHODS

A retrospective, cross-sectional audit of routinely collected clinical data was performed. Standardised protocols were used to measure height, weight and grip strength. Demographic and clinical information was collected from patient medical records. Grip strength comparisons were made against normative data using paired t-tests. General linear regressions with backwards elimination were performed to assess impact of clinical, demographic and physical variables on grip strength.

RESULTS

Children who were right hand (RH) dominant had reduced RH (18.9 ± 9.9 kg, p = 0.001) and left hand (LH)(17.6 ± 9.3 kg, p = 0.027) grip strength compared to age, sex and hand-dominance matched norms (RH, 20.0 ± 10.0 kg; LH, 18.4 ± 9.5 kg). Children who were assessed closer to the time of their injury, and those who were burnt at a young age were more likely to score grip strength values below the norm (p < 0.001 for all analyses). In particular, females appeared to be at a higher risk of low grip strength scores if burnt at a young age (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Children with non-severe burn injury struggle to recover musculoskeletal strength, with those who were assessed closer to the time of injury or burnt at a young age especially at risk of impaired grip strength performance. Grip strength does not appear to be influenced by any other clinical variables or burn injury characteristics.