[What about quality of life in elderly intensive care survivors?]

Abstract

Elderly patients are more and more frequent in intensive care units (ICU). Few studies focused on the ouality of life (QOL) of those patients after ICU. QOL refers to the subjective perception of the health status by the patient himself. The functional status describes the ability to deal with daily living activities. Elderly patients have usually a reduced functional status compared to the general population, or compared to younger ICU patients. QOL of these patients seems to be comparable to the QOL before ICU admission, especially in the psychological and mental domains, but it is sometimes reduced in the physical domains. Those results seem to be explained by a better acceptance by the elderly of their physical difficulties.