Study protocol: The Intensive Care Outcome Network ('ICON') study

Extended follow-up of survivors of ICU treatment has shown many patients suffer long-term physical and psychological consequences that affect their quality of life. The current lack of rigorous longitudinal studies means that the true prevalence of these physical and psychological problems remains undetermined.

Methods: This is a multi-centre, longitudinal study or survivors of critical illness.

Patients will be recruited prior to hospital discharge from 20-30 ICUs in the UK. Outcome measures will be assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months post ICU discharge and include Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) as measured by the Short Form-36 (SF-36) and the EuroQoL (EQ-5D); anxiety and depression as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms as measured by the PTSD Civilian Checklist (PCL-C).

As part of the economic analysis the EQ-5D will be used to derive quality-adjusted life years. DiscussionThe ICON study will create a valuable UK database detailing the prevalence of physical and psychological morbidity experienced by patients as they recover from critical illness.

Knowledge of the prevalence of physical and psychological morbidity in ICU survivors is important because research to generate models of causality, prognosis and treatment effects is dependent on accurate determination of prevalence.

Author: John A Griffiths, Kayleigh Morgan, Vicki S Barber and J DUNCAN Young
Credits/Source: BMC Health Services Research 2008, 8:132

Published on: 2008-06-17

Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please make sure to read our disclaimer prior to contacting 7thSpace Interactive. To contact our editors, visit our online helpdesk. If you wish submit your own press release, click here.

Comments Page 0 of 0

There are currently 0 comments to display.

+ Add New Comment

Custom Search