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Observational Study
. 2014 Dec 30;9(12):e116304.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116304. eCollection 2014.

Long term health-related quality of life in survivors of sepsis in South West Wales: an epidemiological study

Ceri E Battle  1 , Gareth Davies  1 , Phillip A Evans  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

Long term health-related quality of life in survivors of sepsis in South West Wales: an epidemiological study

Ceri E Battle et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: Survivors of sepsis report persistent problems that can last years after hospital discharge. The main aim of this study was to investigate long-term health-related quality of life in survivors of SIRS and sepsis compared with Welsh normative data, controlling for age, length of stay and pre-existing conditions. The second aim was to investigate any differences in long-term health-related quality of life specifically with the patients categorised into three groups; SIRS, uncomplicated sepsis and severe sepsis/septic shock.

Methods: A prospective study design was used in order to investigate all sepsis patients either presenting to the Emergency Department or admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a regional trauma centre. Baseline demographics, clinical characteristics and outcomes were collected and surviving patients were sent a SF-12v2 survey at between six months to two years post-hospital discharge.

Results: Quality of life was significantly reduced in all patients when compared to local normative data (all p<0.0001). Reductions in the physical components of health-related quality of life were more pronounced in severe sepsis/septic shock patients when compared to uncomplicated sepsis and SIRS patients, when controlling for age, pre-existing conditions, hospital and ICU length of stay.

Conclusions: This is the first observational study to specifically focus on the different groups of SIRS and sepsis patients to assess long-term quality of life. Local population norms were used for comparison, rather than UK-wide norms that fail to reflect the intricacies of a country's population.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Health-Related Quality of Life in sepsis survivors at six months to two years compared to the Welsh Population.
Radar chart of the health related quality of life in long term survivors of sepsis compared to Welsh population. Blue line with squares: all sepsis group results. Red line with diamonds: Welsh population results. PF: physical functioning, RP: role limitation physical, BP: bodily pain, GH: general health, VT: vitality, SF: social functioning, RE: role limitation emotional, MH: mental health.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Health-Related Quality of Life in sterile SIRS, uncomplicated sepsis and severe sepsis/septic shock.
Radar chart of the health-related quality of life in long-term survivors of Sterile SIRS (group 1– blue line with diamonds), uncomplicated sepsis (group 2– red line with squares) and severe sepsis/septic shock (group 3– green line with triangles). PF: physical functioning, RP: role limitation physical, BP: bodily pain, GH: general health, VT: vitality, SF: social functioning, RE: role limitation emotional, MH: mental health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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