Purpose
To evaluate if severity of illness in the intensive care unit influences patients' retrospective recall of their baseline physical function from prior to hospital admission.
Materials and Methods
A prospective cohort study of 193 acute lung injury (ALI) survivors who, prior to hospital discharge, retrospectively reported their pre-hospitalization physical function using the SF-36 quality of life survey.
Results
Four measures were used to evaluate ICU severity of illness: (1) Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II Acute Physiologic Score at ICU admission, (2) Lung Injury Score at ALI diagnosis, (3) Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at study enrollment, and (4) maximum daily SOFA score during the entire ICU stay. In multivariable linear regression analysis, no measure of severity of illness was associated with prehospitalization Physical Function. Education level significantly modified the relationship between ICU severity of illness and baseline Physical Function with lower educational attainment having a stronger association with baseline physical function.
Conclusion
ICU severity of illness was not associated with patients' retrospectively recalled baseline physical function. Patients with a lower level of education maybe more influenced by ICU severity of illness, but the magnitude of this effect may not be clinically meaningful.
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