title: Children's self-reported quality of life after intensive care treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A number of studies have reported on parental/clinician reports of children's quality of life after intensive care treatment. The aim of this study was to establish children's own views of their outcome. [corrected].
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort study. [corrected].
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one bed PICU in a tertiary Children's Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-seven children aged over 7 yr, with no preexisting learning difficulties, consecutively admitted to PICU over an 18 month period
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and a post-traumatic stress screener, at 3 months and again at 1 year (n = 72) after discharge from PICU.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At 3 months post-discharge, the mean total Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory score reported by the PICU group was lower than that reported in the literature for a non-clinical community sample (PICU mean = 79.1 vs community mean = 83.9, p = 0.003), but by 1 year, they were comparable (82.2, p = 0.388). The mean physical functioning subscale score remained lower (PICU mean=81.6 vs. community mean=88.5, p = 0.01), but improved significantly from 73.4 at 3 months (p = 0.001).Sub-group analyses revealed that the elective group reported higher emotional functioning than the community sample (91.0, p=0.005 at 3 months and 88.2, p = 0.038 at 1 year vs community mean=78.5), and made significant gains in social functioning between timepoints (79.1 to 91.4, p = 0.015).Finally, although total PedsQL scores at 1 year were not associated with measures of severity of illness during admission, they were significantly negatively associated with concurrent post-traumatic stress symptom scores (r = -0.40, p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The self-report version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory proved to be a feasible and sensitive tool for assessing health related quality of life in this group of PICU survivors.
authors: Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK. gcolvill@sgul.ac.uk
authors: Gillian A
authors: GA
authors: Colville
authors: Christine M
authors: CM
authors: Pierce
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D058992:Social Participation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors