Health-related quality of life in older patients surviving ICU treatment for COVID-19: results from an international observational study of patients older than 70 years

Background health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important patient-centred outcome in patients surviving ICU admission for COVID-19. It is currently not clear which domains of the HRQoL are most affected. Objective to quantify HRQoL in order to identify areas of interventions. Design prospective observation study. Setting admissions to European ICUs between March 2020 and February 2021. Subjects patients aged 70 years or older admitted with COVID-19 disease. Methods collected determinants include SOFA-score, Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), number and timing of ICU procedures and limitation of care, Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADL) dependence score. HRQoL was assessed at 3 months after ICU admission with the Euro-QoL-5D-5L questionnaire. An outcome of >= 4 on any of Euro-QoL-5D-5L domains was considered unfavourable. Results in total 3,140 patients from 14 European countries were included in this study. Three months after inclusion, 1,224 patients (39.0%) were alive and the EQ-5D-5L from was obtained. The CFS was associated with an increased odds ratio for an unfavourable HRQoL outcome after 3 months; OR 1.15 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71-1.87) for CFS 2 to OR 4.33 (95% CI: 1.57-11.9) for CFS >= 7. The Katz ADL was not statistically significantly associated with HRQoL after 3 months. Conclusions in critically ill old intensive care patients suffering from COVID-19, the CFS is associated with the subjectively perceived quality of life. The CFS on admission can be used to inform patients and relatives on the risk of an unfavourable qualitative outcome if such patients survive.

Automated summary

This study aims to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in ICU patients surviving COVID-19 and identify areas for intervention. The findings indicate that the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is associated with subjective quality of life in critically ill older COVID-19 patients, while Katz ADL is not significantly associated.