Quality of life of long term ICU patients at 6 months after hospital discharge

Objectives

to assess the quality of life (QOL) of hospital survivors who stayed at the medical ICU >3 days at 6 months after hospital discharge.

Patients and methods

Questionnaire of American Association for Respiratory Care (QAARC: 7 items, scale: min 1, max 7 points) was mailed to patients admitted to the ICU in 1995 who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. QAARC of the patients was compared to QAARC of local population. Statistics: means ± SD, Student's t-test; P < 0.05 considered significant.

Results

Out of 386 ICU admissions in 1995, 91 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Response rate to QAARC was 70% (64 questionnaires). Fifty-one patients (mean APACHE II on admission 20.4 ± 4.8, age 51 ± 14 years, 35 males and 16 females) were alive at 6 months after hospital discharge and were further analyzed. Patients had acceptable but significantly lower physical fitness than controls (4.3 ± 1.8 and 5.3 ± 1.4 points, respectively P < 0.01) but had better emotivity within the last 2 weeks (5.6 ± 1.4 and 5.0 ± 1.3 points, respectively, P < 0.05). QOL was independent on admission APACHEII score and diagnosis group.

Results

Conclusion

At least 56% of hospital survivors of long term medical ICU care survive and have acceptable quality of life at 6 months after hospital discharge.