Abstract 320: Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Are Associated with Quality of Life in Both Cardiac Arrest Survivors with Good Neurologic Recovery and Caregivers

Abstract

Introduction: Improvements in cardiac arrest (CA) survival have led to increased attention to quality of life (QoL) of survivors and their caregivers. In survivors, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) are predictive of poor clinical outcome and subjective recovery. This study tested the hypothesis that PTS is associated with QoL in survivors and caregivers. Method: We distributed an online survey to CA survivors and caregivers who were members of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. This analysis examined the following items: participant characteristics, PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL-5), Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale, and physical, psychological, and social QoL subscales of the WHOQOL-BREF. We followed an identical analytic plan for survivors and caregivers. We identified potential covariates through a bivariate correlation matrix. We then ran three multiple regression models examining associations between PCL-5 scores with each QoL subscale, adjusted for covariates identified from the correlation matrix. Results: A total of 163 survivors (mean age: 50.1 years, 50.3% women, 95.5% white, mean months since arrest: 63.9) and 52 caregivers (mean age: 51.8 years, 86.5% women, 88.5% white, mean months since arrest: 43.2) provided full data. For survivors, the following variables showed significant bivariate associations with any QoL subscale: Lawton scores, self-reported memory problems, male sex, low income, months since CA, age, and CA location; for caregivers, months since CA, age, and low income. In survivors and caregivers, PCL-5 scores were associated with each QoL subscale (β: -.33 - -.54, p < .05) after adjusting for respective covariate sets. Further, in survivors, Lawton scores (β: .23, p <.01), presence of memory problems (β: -.24, p < .01), and male sex (β: .14, p <.05) were associated with physical QoL; presence of memory problems (β: -.26, p < .01) was associated with psychological QoL; and low income (β: -.16, p < .05) was associated with social QoL. In caregivers, months since CA was associated with social QoL (β: .27, p <.05). Conclusion: PTS was associated with QoL in CA survivors and caregivers. Future study should examine the feasibility of in-hospital assessment of PTS in dyads of CA survivors and their caregivers.