Characteristics, Outcomes and Recovery of Patients 65 Years or Older Admitted to Swedish Intensive Care Units: A Protocol for a Longitudinal Observational Multicentre Study.

Background: There are little data on the impact of frailty on critically ill older patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs) and on their characteristics and outcomes. More understanding of the longitudinal health and recovery process is needed and of the recovery traits of older patients after intensive care.

Aim: This project aims to identify characteristics and outcomes in patients 65 years or older admitted to ICUs and to explore how health and recovery is experienced after discharge, with a special focus on frailty.

Study design: This research project will conduct both retrospective and prospective data collection with a sample of approximately 3200 patients. This is a longitudinal, multicentre, prospective, observational research project with a nested cohort covering 12 months of admissions and comprising four studies. The first aims to map the characteristics of patients admitted to the ICUs, their treatments and their outcomes. The second will use questionnaires to assess their health and recovery process up to 18 months after discharge. The third and fourth studies aim to describe and understand their lived experiences using research interviews, with the fourth study including only frail patients.

Relevance to clinical practice: The project comprises studies that seek to identify the characteristics of older people admitted to ICUs, to examine how frailty impacts them and to understand what they experience during and foremost after intensive care. The project also aims to understand the facilitators and barriers to promoting health and recovery after discharge from ICUs and to contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting health and recovery initiatives. The results need to be spread and the knowledge sprung from this project may be implemented and used by intensive care unit clinicians.