A. Diazprieto et al., PROXY-PERCEIVED PRIOR HEALTH-STATUS AND HOSPITAL OUTCOME AMONG THE CRITICALLY ILL - IS THERE ANY RELATIONSHIP, Intensive care medicine, 24(7), 1998, pp. 691-698
Objectives: To measure the health status of critically ill patients pr
ior to hospital admission and to study the relationship between prior
health status (PHS) and hospital mortality. Design: 523 patients admit
ted to the intensive care department from October 1994 to June 1995 we
re in eluded consecutively in the study. Health status 3 months prior
to admission was assessed retrospectively by proxies using the EuroQol
5D (EQ-5D) and the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale (KF). Patients
were classified into four admission categories: trauma injury, schedul
ed surgery, unscheduled surgery and other medical conditions. Setting:
Department of Intensive Medicine, University Hospital of Bellvitge, B
arcelona, Spain. Patients: 84 trauma injury patients, 239 scheduled su
rgery patients, 57 unscheduled surgery patients and 143 patients with
other medical conditions. Interventions: The descriptive system and vi
sual analogue scale (VAS) of the EQ-SD and the K.F Measurements anti m
ain results: Using proxy responses we found that trauma injury patient
s had the best PHS and scheduled surgery patients the worst. There wer
e statistically significant differences in mean VAS scores and all EQ-
5D dimensions, except self-care, when trauma injury patients or schedu
led surgery patients were compared with the other admission categories
. No significant differences were found on these variables between uns
cheduled surgery patients and medical patients. We found no statistica
lly significant differences in PHS health status between patients who
died and those who survived, either within each admission category or
in the sample as a whole. Conclusions: The PHS of critically ill patie
nts varied according to admission category. Given the instruments used
and population studied, there was no association between PHS and hosp
ital outcome.