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Functional outcomes and quality of life of young adults who survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Emergency Medicine Journal, 07/06/2012
Deasy C et al. – The majority of survivors have good functional and quality of life outcomes. Telephone follow–up is feasible in the young adult survivors of cardiac arrest; loss to follow–up is common.
Methods- The Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry records were used to identify survivors of OHCA that occurred between 2003 and 2008 in the 18–39year–old age group.
- Survivors were administered a telephone questionnaire using Short Form (SF–12), EQ–5D and Glasgow Outcome Scale–Extended.
- Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) ascertained at hospital discharge from the medical record was recorded for the uncontactable survivors.
- Of the 106 young adult survivors, five died in the intervening years and 45 were not contactable or refused.
- CPC scores were obtained for 37 (74%) of those who did not take part in telephone follow–up, and 7 (19%) of these had a CPC ≥3 indicating severe cerebral disability.
- The median follow–up time was 5years (range 2.7– 8.6years) for the 56 (53%) patients included.
- Of these, 84% were living at home independently, 68% had returned to work, and only 11% reported marked or severe disability.
- The majority of patients had no problems with mobility (75%), personal care (75%), usual activities (66%) or pain/discomfort (71%).
- However, 61% of respondents reported either moderate (48%) or severe (13%) anxiety.
