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. 2023 Oct 5:16:100478.
doi: 10.1016/j.resplu.2023.100478. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Health-related quality of life in young Norwegian survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest related to pre-arrest exercise habits

Cecilie Benedicte Isern  1   2   3 , Birgitta Blakstad Nilsson  4   5 , Andrew Garratt  6 , Jo Kramer-Johansen  1   2 , Ingvild B M Tjelmeland  1   2   7 , Hilde Moseby Berge  3   8
Affiliations

Health-related quality of life in young Norwegian survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest related to pre-arrest exercise habits

Cecilie Benedicte Isern et al. Resusc Plus. .

Abstract

Aim: To compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in young survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Norway with an age and sex-matched reference population and to assess the associations between exercise volume prior to OHCA and HRQoL after.

Methods: We present data from survivors aged 18-50 years registered with OHCA in the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest Registry between January 1st 2015 and December 31st 2017. Survivors were invited to answer two questionnaires; (1) the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey Version 1, and (2) about exercise habits prior to OHCA. Respondents were randomly matched 1:1 for age and sex with a reference population (data were available from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data).

Results: Of the 175 survivors invited, 95 (54%) responded, median age was 44 (range 35-48) years, 26 (27%) females. Valid results for SF-36 were available for 91 survivors, of whom 87 reported pre-OHCA exercise-volume. Prior to OHCA, 21 did no regular exercise, 44 exercised 1-4 hours/week and 22 exercised ≥5 hours/week. Compared to the reference population survivors had significantly (p < 0.01) poorer SF-36 scores for scales relating to physical- and mental health. SF-36 scale scores were similar in survivors who did and did not exercise regularly. Within the regular exercisers, survivors reporting ≥5 hours of exercise/week had better SF-36 scores than those exercising less.

Conclusion: Poorer HRQoL in survivors compared to the reference population should prompt us to explore how treatment and rehabilitation could be improved and adapted. More exercise before OHCA favoured better HRQoL after, which aligns well with the recognised positive association between HRQoL and physical activity in general.

Keywords: Cardiac arrest; Exercise; Long-term outcome; Patient reported outcome; Population based study; SF-36; Young age.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: ‘CBI: Received un-restricted research grant from Laerdal Foundation for planning and initiation for a Phd-project, which this manuscript constitutes a part of. BBN: None to declare. AMG: None to declare. IBMT: Received unrestricted grant from Laerdal foundation for non-related research project. JKJ: Received unrestricted grant from Laerdal foundation for a related research project on HRQoL in all survivors of OHCA. HMB: None to declare’.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of inclusion. Starting with available registrations in the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest Registry, continuing with patients eligible for inclusion in the main project describing young victims of OHCA in Norway (n = 624): Survivors eligible for inclusion in this study (n = 181 survivors), respondents to the questionnaire (n = 95); survivors eligible for analysis of SF-36 (n = 91) and presented by exercise-habits prior to OHCA.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overview of how the SF-36-items and their contribution to 8 scale and 2 component scores. The figure is adapted from Ware et al.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Visual presentation of the between-group differences in SF-36 scores. Comparison of SF-36 scores between groups illustrated with spider plots for; (a) study population (solid line) versus the Norwegian reference population (dotted line), (b) no regular exercise (solid line) versus regular exercisers (dotted line), (c) grouped by <5 hours (solid line) or ≥5 hours (dotted line) of exercise/week prior to OHCA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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