Validation of two quality of life questionnaires suitable for intensive care patients

• Published in: Intensive care medicine 2000-09, Vol.26 (9), p.1296-1303
• Main Authors: CAPUZZO, Maurizia, GRASSELLI, Claudia, CARRER, Sara, GRITTI, Gaetano, ALVISI, Raffaele
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Chi-Square Distribution; Chronic illnesses; Emergency and intensive care: techniques, logistics; Female; Humans; Intensive care; Intensive care medicine; Intensive Care Units; Interviews; Interviews as Topic; Male; Medical sciences; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Patients; Perfusions. Catheterizations. Hyperbaric oxygenotherapy; Physicians; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching hospitals
• ISSN: 0342-4642; 1432-1238
• DOI: 10.1007/s001340000579

To validate two instruments measuring quality of life (QOL) suitable for patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU): QOL-IT and QOL-SP. Prospective study using patient interviews. Two four-bed surgical-medical ICUs in a 960-bed teaching hospital. One hundred seventy-two adult, co-operative patients consecutively admitted to ICU for more than 24 h were interviewed. One year after hospital discharge, 84 survivors were interviewed again. Inter-observer reproducibility was investigated in 36 patients. To validate the instruments, the QOL-IT and QOL-SP scores reported by patients were considered according to the functional limitation evaluated by the interviewer. Moreover, the theoretical prediction that patients with chronic diseases should have a worse QOL before ICU admission than patients with only acute illness was tested. QOL-IT and QOL-SP scores given 1 year after hospital discharge were compared with those recorded at the first interview. Inter-observer reproducibility was excellent. The possible range of QOL-IT is 0-20 and that of QOL-SP 0-29. According to the functional limitation (absent, mild or severe), the median QOL-IT score increased from 3 to 6 to 13 and QOL-SP from 2 to 6 to 12 (p< 0.0001). The patients with chronic diseases gave scores significantly higher than the patients with only acute illness (median QOL-IT 8 versus 3, p< 0.013; QOL-SP 8 versus 4, p< 0.004). The median QOL-IT score changed from 3 to 4 one year after hospital discharge, a difference which is statistically (p< 0.001), but not clinically, significant. The median QOL-SP score was 3 and did not change. QOL-IT and QOL-SP are instruments able to discriminate between different health states.