Predictors of early recovery of health status after intensive care.

objectiveTo identify factors predictive of good or poor recovery of health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) 90 days after admission to an intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN AND

settingProspective international multicentre study in 19 ICUs participating in the HRQOL substudy of the SAPS 3 project.

interventionThe EuroQol questionnaire (EQ) was administered to discharged ICU patients 90 days after admission. A question to compare present health status with that 3 months before ICU admission (same/better/worse) was added. PATIENTS: Six hundred and eighteen patients who spent >24h in an ICU and survived for 90 days. EQ data and health comparison were available in 559 (90.5%) of them. MEASUREMENTS AND

resultsPatients reported their general level of health to be better (33.8%), the same (31.1%), or worse (35.1%) in comparison with baseline. Recovery was considered to be good for answers "better" or "the same". Regression analysis showed that transplantation surgery [odds ratio (OR) 0.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01-0.63], coronary artery bypass surgery without valvular repair (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.17-0.92) and being admitted to the ICU from a ward or other location (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.31-0.95) predicted good recovery of health. Predictors of poor recovery (all present at the time of ICU admission) were unplanned ICU admission, hypothermia, serum creatinine level >or=2mg/dl, pH<or=7.25 and metastatic cancer.

conclusionsMore than 60% of ICU patients report good recovery of their health 90 days after ICU admission, depending on their illness and circumstances of ICU admission.