Health-related quality of life in critically ill patients: how to score and what is the clinical impact?

Abstract

In this article, we reviewed the methods and description of measurement instruments used in critically ill patients. The most recently used instruments to measure HRQOL, how to score HRQOL before ICU admission and the impact of critical illness on HRQOL are discussed. Assessment of HRQOL can improve the answers given by critical care physicians and nurses about the prospects of their patients. To get insights in these issues regarding the impact of ICU treatment, we should incorporate not only short-term outcomes, for example length of stay and mortality, but also HRQOL.

Development and Validation of the Influenza Intensity and Impact Questionnaire (FluiiQ™)

“…Weaker correlations were observed between the patient reported FluiiQ™ and the Physician GSQ, which is a common finding [26,27]. Across all measures, a lower correlation was observed at day 1 compared to later assessments, which may relate to patients considering their general health to be good, regardless of their influenza episode.…”

An Italian Study on Health-Related Quality of Life and Fatigue in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Patients with Chronic HCV Virus Infection: Similarities and Differences

“…Meanwhile, the scores of the mental health domain and of bodily pain were found significantly higher in the CFS population than in the CHC population (p<O.O I) ( where the disease chronically persists without necessarily resulting in death. For this reason, the doctor's attention is focused on ensuring a good and stable health status over time, as is well documented in the scientific literature (23)(24)(25)(26). In this paper, we evaluated the HRQoL in patients living with chronic fatigue syndrome, a still poorly known disease in Italy, to establish the impact of the illness on all aspects of life of the individual patients, and to compare them with patients with chronic hepatitis C, a well-defined chronic disease where fatigue and HRQoL are known to induce a disabling condition.…”

Psychometric evaluation of 3-set 4P questionnaire

“…However, none of these instruments focus on condition-specific issues in critically ill patients, e.g. cognitive dysfunction or severe physical dysfunction (Hofhuis et al, 2008). When exploring patient recovery during the post-ICU phase, there is a need to obtain a composite dataset where both the patients' physical and psychosocial conditions are monitored, as well as how the individual patients experience their recovery in these respects.…”

“…QOL is unique to each patient, even if they have the same health status. Multi-dimensional factors such as the patients' subjective values and choices make QOL a difficult parameter to measure (Hofhuis et al, 2008). A variety of instruments have been used to measure patients' HRQOL after intensive care.…”