Top

Published in:

01-12-2020 | Care | Commentary

Health-related quality of life after critical care—the emperor’s new clothes

Authors: Folke Sjöberg, Lotti Orwelius, Sören Berg

Published in: Critical Care | Issue 1/2020

Excerpt

Early in the 1970s, studies about critical care started to focus on outcome measures other than mortality, as mortality rates had decreased, and it now only was relevant to a smaller number of patients, i.e., those dying [1]. Ever since, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been examined extensively and most researchers have stressed that it is significantly affected by having undergone critical care treatment [2]. …

An idiomatic expression from the Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen that no one dares to tell the obvious truth if it is contradictory to what everyone else is saying is right, at the risk of being considered ignorant.

Cullen DJ, Ferrara LC, Briggs BA, Walker PF, Gilbert J. Survival, hospitalization charges and follow-up results in critically ill patients. N Engl J Med. 1976;294(18):982–7.CrossRef

Turnbull AE, Rabiee A, Davis WE, Nasser MF, Venna VR, Lolitha R, Hopkins RO, Bienvenu OJ, Robinson KA, Needham DM. Outcome measurement in ICU survivorship research from 1970 to 2013: a scoping review of 425 publications. Crit Care Med. 2016;44(7):1267–77.CrossRef

Oeyen SG, Vandijck DM, Benoit DD, Annemans L, Decruyenaere JM. Quality of life after intensive care: a systematic review of the literature. Crit Care Med. 2010;38(12):2386–400.CrossRef

Flaatten H, Kvale R. Survival and quality of life 12 years after ICU. A comparison with the general Norwegian population. Intensive Care Med. 2001;27(6):1005–11.CrossRef

Hopkins RO, Weaver LK, Pope D, Orme JF, Bigler ED, Larson LV. Neuropsychological sequelae and impaired health status in survivors of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1999;160(1):50–6.CrossRef

Hofhuis JGM, van Stel HF, Schrijvers AJP, Rommes JH, Spronk PE. Changes of health-related quality of life in critically ill octogenarians: a follow-up study. Chest. 2011;140(6):1473–83.CrossRef

Orwelius L, Fredrikson M, Kristenson M, Walther S, Sjoberg F. Health-related quality of life scores after intensive care are almost equal to those of the normal population: a multicenter observational study. Crit Care. 2013;17(5):R236.CrossRef

Orwelius L, Willebrand M, Gerdin B, Ekselius L, Fredrikson M, Sjoberg F. Long term health-related quality of life after burns is strongly dependent on pre-existing disease and psychosocial issues and less due to the burn itself. Burns. 2013;39(2):229–35.CrossRef

Bagshaw SM, Stelfox HT, Johnson JA, McDermid RC, Rolfson DB, Tsuyuki RT, Ibrahim Q, Majumdar SR. Long-term association between frailty and health-related quality of life among survivors of critical illness: a prospective multicenter cohort study. Crit Care Med. 2015;43(5):973–82.CrossRef

10.

Berkius J, Engerstrom L, Orwelius L, Nordlund P, Sjoberg F, Fredrikson M, Walther SM. A prospective longitudinal multicentre study of health related quality of life in ICU survivors with COPD. Crit Care. 2013;17(5):R211.CrossRef

11.

Williams TA, McConigley R, Leslie GD, Dobbs GJ, Phillips M, Davies H, Aoun S. A comparison of outcomes among hospital survivors with and without severe comorbidity admitted to the intensive care unit. Anaesth Intensive Care. 2015;43(2):230–7.CrossRef

12.

van Beusekom I, Bakhshi-Raiez F, de Keizer NF, Dongelmans DA, van der Schaaf M. Reported burden on informal caregivers of ICU survivors: a literature review. Crit Care. 2016;20:16.CrossRef

13.

Prescott HC, Carmichael AG, Langa KM, Gonzalez R, Iwashyna TJ. Paths into sepsis: trajectories of presepsis healthcare use. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2019;16(1):116–23.CrossRef

14.

Charlson M, Wells MT, Ullman R, King F, Shmukler C. The Charlson comorbidity index can be used prospectively to identify patients who will incur high future costs. PLoS One. 2014;9(12):e112479.CrossRef

15.

Paparrigopoulos T, Melissaki A, Tzavellas E, Karaiskos D, Ilias I, Kokras N. Increased co-morbidity of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and common risk factors in intensive care unit survivors: a two-year follow-up study. Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract. 2014;18(1):25–31.CrossRef

Title: Health-related quality of life after critical care—the emperor’s new clothes
Authors: Folke Sjöberg
Lotti Orwelius
Sören Berg
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keyword: Care
Published in: Critical Care / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1364-8535
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-020-03012-3

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Health-related quality of life after critical care—the emperor’s new clothes

Excerpt

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Excerpt

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2020

Physiology of the Respiratory Drive in ICU Patients: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment

Correlation of interleukin-6 with Epstein–Barr virus levels in COVID-19

Benefit of hydrocortisone, thiamine, and vitamin C for patients with sepsis or septic shock? Too early to draw conclusions

Multi-organ point-of-care ultrasound for COVID-19 (PoCUS4COVID): international expert consensus

Micronutrient status of COVID-19 patients: a critical consideration

Candida infections in severe acute pancreatitis: we need to do more in order to distinguish invasive infection from simple colonization