Med Intensiva (Engl Ed). 2025 Sep 22:502309. doi: 10.1016/j.medine.2025.502309. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Describe and compare the Quality of Life (QoL) and disability of critical care survivors with COVID-19 and NON-COVID-19 critical illness, admitted during and after the pandemic period. We hypothesize that both COVID-19 disease and the pandemic context have a significant impact on long-term outcomes of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) survivors.
DESIGN: Post-hoc analysis of prospectively collected data.
SETTING: Intensive Care Department of Unidade Local de Saúde São João between 1st October 2020 and 31st December 2021.
PARTICIPANTS: Three groups of adult critical care survivors; Group 1: critical COVID-19 patients; Group 2: critical patients with other diagnosis, admitted in the pandemic period; Group 3: critical patients admitted in the post-pandemic period due to non-COVID-19 causes.
INTERVENTION: Telephone consultation 16 months after discharge home, assessing QoL and disability.
MAIN VARIABLES OF INTEREST: QoL five dimensions, EuroQol Visual Analog Scale (EQ-VAS) and Health and disability 6 domains.
RESULTS: Of the 185 survivors, Group 1 reported less problems in”Self-care” (OR = 0.15, 95%CI: 0.04-0.55), “Usual activities” (OR = 0.20, 95%CI: 0.08-0.0.52), and “Anxiety/Depression” (OR = 0.36, 95%CI: 0.14-0.97) dimensions. Health and disability domains assessment showed Group 1 had less difficulties in “Cognition” (OR = 0.37, 95%CI: 0.15-0.91), “Mobility” (OR = 0.25, 95%CI: 0.09-0.68), “Self-care” (OR = 0.15, 95%CI: 0.05-0.40) and “Life activities” (OR = 0.32, 95%CI: 0.13-0.76).
CONCLUSIONS: Sixteen months after discharge home, survivors of non-COVID-19 admitted during the pandemic period present worse QoL and functional status than COVID-19 survivors admitted during the same period and greater post-hospital discharge healthcare needs.
PMID:40987632 | DOI:10.1016/j.medine.2025.502309
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