Health-related quality of life 6months after pediatric intensive care unit admission for bronchiolitis: a prospective single-center cohort study.

Abstract

Significant differences in several HRQoL domains were found after PICU admission for bronchiolitis compared to normative data. Whereas the domains lung and stomach problems showed significantly impaired scores, most domains revealed HRQoL levels comparable with healthy peers. This study may contribute to the optimization of HRQoL PICU outcomes by highlighting specific HRQoL domains to focus on at admission and during follow-up. •With the decline in PICU mortality, HRQoL became an important outcome measure. Yet, the currently limited number of studies on HRQoL outcomes often involve heterogeneous patient groups. • Bronchiolitis is one of the most frequent reasons for PICU admission, and although a significant part of children admitted for bronchiolitis has a medical history, compared with other reasons for PICU admission, this patient group is relatively homogeneous in terms of age, disease course, and treatment. •In the present study, six months after PICU admission for bronchiolitis, children scored differently on multiple HRQoL domains compared to healthy peers. • Significantly impaired HRQoL scores were reported on lung and stomach problems in comparison to normative data.