Quality of Life and Related Factors Among Patients Discharged from Critical Care Units

Background: Quality of life is considered as the sense of well-being and life satisfaction. The healthcare professionals’ final mission is health amelioration to increase the patients’ life quality. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of different factors on the quality of life in patients discharged from critical care units. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 325 patients admitted to critical care units of Kashan Shahid Beheshti hospital using a convenience sampling method in 2015. Data were gathered one month after patients’ discharge through a demographic questionnaire, the quality of life standardized ShortForm-36 (SF-36) questionnaire, and the post-traumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL). The obtained data were analyzed using statistical tests such as t-test and (one-way) ANOVA test. Results: The enrolled sample consisted of 185 (56.9%) males and 140 (43.1%) females with a mean age of 54 ± 16.15. The mean total score of life quality in the study sample was 54.32 ± 27.52 and the total score of PCL was 43.99 ± 19.94. The mean score of the life quality was lower among patients with features including over 60 years, unemployed, a long-term hospitalization, more than five children, drug abuse, using mechanical ventilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder; however, the mean score was higher in employed and highly educated people. This analysis indicated no relationship between quality of life and patient’s gender, type of critical care unit, marital status, and admission for trauma reason. Conclusion: The mean score of the quality of life of patients discharged from intensive care units is low. Some of the individual and medical features such as age, drug abuse, a long-term hospitalization, using mechanical ventilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder are risk factors that decrease the quality of life. Nurses can identify and control the risk factors in intensive care units.