Baseline quality of life before intensive care: a comparison of patient versus proxy responses.
OBJECTIVE
To compare acute lung injury patients' self-reported, retrospective baseline quality of life before their intensive care hospitalization with population norms and retrospective proxy estimates.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study using the Short Form 36 quality-of-life survey.


METHODS
Thirteen intensive care units at four teaching hospitals in Baltimore, Maryland.


METHODS
One hundred thirty-six acute lung injury survivors and their designated proxies.


METHODS
Both patients and proxies were asked to estimate patient baseline quality of life before hospital admission using the Short Form 36 survey.


RESULTS
Compared with population norms, quality-of-life scores were lower in acute lung injury patients across all eight domains, but the difference was significantly greater than the minimum clinically important difference in only two of eight domains (Physical Role and General Health). The mean paired difference between patient and proxy responses revealed no clinically important difference. However, kappa statistics demonstrated only fair to moderate agreement for all domains. Bland-Altman analysis revealed that, for all domains, proxies tended to overestimate quality of life when patient scores were low and underestimate the quality of life when patient scores were high.


CONCLUSIONS
Retrospective assessment of quality of life before hospitalization revealed that acute lung injury patients' scores were consistently lower than population norms, but the magnitude of this difference may not be clinically important. Proxy assessments had only fair to moderate agreement with patient assessments. Across all eight Short Form 36 quality-of-life domains, proxy responses represented an attenuation of patient quality-of-life estimates.
Gifford
Jeneen M
JM
Department of Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Husain
Nadia
N
Dinglas
Victor D
VD
Colantuoni
Elizabeth
E
Needham
Dale M
DM
D055371:Acute Lung Injury / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012803:Sick Role; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires