Impaired long-term quality of life in survivors of severe sepsis

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as well as the employment status in survivors of severe sepsis up to 6 years afterwards. From January 2003 to December 2008 a total of 112 severe sepsis and 112 age, gender and Charlson comorbidity index-matched non-septic critically ill patients from 4 university hospital intensive care units (ICU) were enrolled in the study and 126 age and gender-matched community residents were interviewed as the community control group. A total of 66 (58.9 %) severe sepsis and 80 (71.4 %) non-sepsis critically ill patients survived during the long-term follow-up time. Between August and December 2010 a total of 75 patients including 42 survivors of severe sepsis and 33 critically ill controls completed the face-to-face interview. There were no differences in the long-term HRQOL in terms of Short-Form 36 criteria between severe sepsis and non-sepsis critically ill survivors. However, when compared with the community controls, HRQOL in survivors of severe sepsis showed a significantly and clinically meaningful decrease, with a lower physical functioning (p = 0.016), vitality (p = 0.037), role-emotional (p = 0.043), mental health (p = 0.038) and mental component scores (p = 0.042). In addition, the criteria returning to work at 1 year and at the time of interview in severe sepsis survivors were similar with those in critically ill survivors (60.5 % vs. 70.0 %, p = 0.41 and, 71.1 % vs. 76.7 %, p = 0.602). The HRQOL in survivors of severe sepsis was impaired even up to 6 years after hospital discharge.