Assessing the impact of physical, mental and cognitive impairments on health-related quality of life in sepsis survivors following intensive care admission in New Zealand.

AIM

To assess the impact of physical, mental and cognitive impairments on health-related quality-of-life (QoL) of individuals who have survived sepsis after admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in New Zealand.

METHODS

Survivors from a trial investigating vitamin C as an adjunctive therapy in patients with sepsis in Christchurch Hospital ICU were invited to enrol in a longitudinal QoL follow-up study. Patients were interviewed at hospital discharge, 30, 90 and 180 days, using validated physical and mental health assessment questionnaires (Short-Form-36, EuroQol-5-Dimension). Cognitive function was monitored and results compared with New Zealand population norms.

RESULTS

Eighteen of the 26 survivors participated in the 6-month QoL follow-up. At hospital discharge, there were significant physical and mental health issues in the participants interviewed, and although a majority of the subscales improved over the 6-month follow-up, physical function, role-physical and general health were still below population norms. Following discharge, objective parameters (mobility, self-care, usual activities) normalised within 3-6 months, while subjective measures (pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression) improved earlier and were better than population norms at 3-6 months. Cognitive dysfunction persisted over the follow-up period. Short-term (4-day) vitamin C intervention in the ICU did not affect health parameters post hospital discharge.

CONCLUSIONS

Survivors of septic shock experience elevated physical, mental and cognitive issues at discharge. Most mental health issues had resolved by 6 months, but some physical and cognitive issues had not returned to population norms. Short-term vitamin C administration did not improve long-term health-related QoL; however, ongoing vitamin C supplementation may be required.