title: Impaired long-term quality of life in survivors of severe sepsis : Chinese multicenter study over 6 years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was undertaken to evaluate the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as well as the employment status in survivors of severe sepsis up to 6 years afterwards.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 2003 to December 2008 a total of 112 severe sepsis and 112 age, gender and Charlson comorbidity index-matched non-septic critically ill patients from 4 university hospital intensive care units (ICU) were enrolled in the study and 126 age and gender-matched community residents were interviewed as the community control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 66 (58.9 %) severe sepsis and 80 (71.4 %) non-sepsis critically ill patients survived during the long-term follow-up time. Between August and December 2010 a total of 75 patients including 42 survivors of severe sepsis and 33 critically ill controls completed the face-to-face interview. There were no differences in the long-term HRQOL in terms of Short-Form 36 criteria between severe sepsis and non-sepsis critically ill survivors. However, when compared with the community controls, HRQOL in survivors of severe sepsis showed a significantly and clinically meaningful decrease, with a lower physical functioning (p = 0.016), vitality (p = 0.037), role-emotional (p = 0.043), mental health (p = 0.038) and mental component scores (p = 0.042). In addition, the criteria returning to work at 1 year and at the time of interview in severe sepsis survivors were similar with those in critically ill survivors (60.5 % vs. 70.0 %, p = 0.41 and, 71.1 % vs. 76.7 %, p = 0.602).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HRQOL in survivors of severe sepsis was impaired even up to 6 years after hospital discharge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, QingChun road 79, 310003, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: X M
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016638:Critical Illness; D003625:Data Collection; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D018805:Sepsis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016896:Treatment Outcome