Role of preexisting disease in patients' perceptions of health-related quality of life after intensive care.
OBJECTIVE
To find out how patients perceive their health-related quality of life after they have been treated in an intensive care unit and whether preexisting disease influenced their perception.


METHODS
: Follow-up, quantitative, dual-site study.


METHODS
Combined medical and surgical intensive care units of one university and one general hospital in Sweden.


METHODS
Among the 1,938 patients admitted, 562 were considered eligible (>24 hrs in the intensive care unit, and age >18 yrs). The effect of preexisting disease was assessed by use of a large reference group, a random sample (n = 10,000) of the main intake area of the hospitals.


METHODS
None.


RESULTS
During 2000-2002, data were collected from the intensive care unit register and from a questionnaire mailed to the patients 6 months after their discharge from hospital. Subjects in the reference group were sent postal questionnaires during 1999. Of the patients in the intensive care unit group, 74% had preexisting diseases compared with 51% in the reference group. Six months after discharge, health-related quality of life was significantly lower among patients than in the reference group. When comparisons were restricted to the previously healthy people in both groups, the observed differences were about halved, and when we compared the patients in the intensive care unit who had preexisting diseases with subjects in the reference group who had similar diseases, we found little difference in perceived health-related quality of life. In some dimensions of health-related quality of life, we found no differences between patients in the intensive care unit and the subjects in the reference population.


CONCLUSIONS
Preexisting diseases significantly affect the extent of the decline of health-related quality of life after critical care, and this effect may have been underestimated in the past. As most patients who are admitted to an intensive care unit have at least one preexisting disease, it is important to account for these effects when examining outcome.
Department of Intensive Care, National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation, University/University Hospital of Linköping, Sweden.
Lotti
L
Orwelius
Anders
A
Nordlund
Ulla
U
Edéll-Gustafsson
Eva
E
Simonsson
Peter
P
Nordlund
Margareta
M
Kristenson
Preben
P
Bendtsen
Folke
F
Sjöberg
D018806:APACHE; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome