Healthcare consumption and health-related quality of life of intensive care survivors

Many intensive care unit (ICU) survivors suffer severe and long-term complaints after discharge, all leading to a decreased quality of life. ICU follow-up care has been recommended to address these complains, however, there is no evidence for its (cost-) effectiveness. Moreover, there is a gap in knowledge with respect to the Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of ICU patients before their ICU admission and its change over time. The general aims of this thesis are 1) to gain insight in the burden ICU patients and their informal caregivers suffer after hospital discharge and their need for healthcare after discharge and 2) to gain insight into the healthcare consumption of ICU survivors during the year before and the year after ICU admission. We found that ICU survivors have an increased healthcare consumption during the year before and the year after ICU admission compared to people from the general population. Therefore, we assume that ICU survivors have a HRQoL during the year before ICU admission and the year after discharge. ICU survivors and their informal caregivers suffer severe and long-term complaints after hospital discharge and a large part of ICU survivors do not receive care for these complaints. Screening ICU survivors and their informal caregivers is highly recommended in order to give them the care they need. ICU survivors with multiple ICU admissions, multiple chronic conditions prior to ICU admission, and high age are at risk of having a decreased HRQoL after ICU discharge and therefore in need of ICU follow-up care.