Researchers analyzed more than 5,600 cases of pediatric burn treatment over the course of one year and found that rehabilitation services reached only a small proportion of patients, while timely initiation of rehabilitation during the first days of treatment was recorded only rarely.
The study was conducted in collaboration with the Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation, the Health Sciences Research Foundation NGO, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), and Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital, with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
The total study population included 5,660 children with burn injuries, of whom 2,438 (43.07%) were hospitalized. This group, representing patients with potentially more severe injuries, became the primary focus of the subsequent analysis.
Key findings
- 7.61% (431 out of 5,660 patients) — the proportion of all burn treatment cases in which any rehabilitation service was documented.
- 10.99% (268 out of 2,438 patients) — the corresponding proportion among hospitalized children.
- Only 5.90% of children in the overall study population received rehabilitation during their initial treatment episode—the period when rehabilitation should begin according to the standard of care, within the first 72 hours after the patient’s condition has stabilized. Among hospitalized children, this figure was 8.61%.
