ArticleIntensive care medicine2025
What measures have been used to explore the outcomes of family members of critically ill patients: a scoping review.
Article in Intensive care medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rehabilitation and the post-intensive care syndrome across the recovery continuum: a narrative review.Intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Family or caregiver outcomes after critical illness (FOCUS): a protocol for a core outcome set development study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Ensuring inclusion is central to critical care research design.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Anxiety, depression and distress in family members of people who have experienced a critical care admission: a systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.Journal of intensive care · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFamily members of critically ill patients are known to experience short and longer term challenges, including emotional and social problems. To undertake robust future interventional research to support this cohort, we undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the measures used in family outcome research to date.
designScoping review. We searched Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, CINAHL, and Web of Science (core collection) for articles published between 2000 and 2024 which examined the outcomes of family members of critically ill patients. Data on outcome measures, study design, and population characteristics were extracted from eligible studies.
resultsWe reviewed 9873 abstracts and identified 388 eligible unique family member cohorts. Across these studies, there were 59 (15.2%) randomised control trials, 287 (74.0%) observational cohorts, 8 (2.1%) quality improvement programmes, and 34 (8.8%) non-randomised controlled interventional studies. Most research was undertaken in USA, Canada, and Europe (n = 264, 67.5%). A total of 218 different outcomes measures were used across the studies included. In this review, 345 (89%) studies measured emotional or psychological outcomes, 85 (22%) measured family experience outcomes, 65 (17%) measured general functional status, quality of life or well-being outcomes, 35 (9%) measured environmental or social outcomes, and 10 (3%) measured cognitive outcomes.
conclusionsWe identified 388 studies which reported the outcomes of family members of critically ill patients. Over 200 different outcomes measures were utilised, exploring conceptual domains such as quality of life as well as psychological and social outcomes. The majority of studies were observational in nature with variable follow-up timelines. This review has highlighted that a core outcome measure set is essential to enable reliable, robust, and comparable interventional research in this area.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.