Mid-term health-related quality of life in community-acquired bacterial meningitis survivors; the COMBAT study

BACKGROUND: Community Acute Bacterial Meningitis (CABM) is a rare infectious disease leading to important impairments. Our aim was to describe CABM survivors’ quality of life (QOL) 12 months post-CABM and to assess its associations with CABM sequelae. METHODS: Patients included in the CABM COMBAT cohort were evaluated one year after the CABM episode. Data were collected by questionnaire, via phone calls with the patients. The WHOQOL-BREF was used to measure CABM survivors’ QOL. Hierarchical multivariate linear regressions were performed. RESULTS: Study population was composed of 284 patients. At 12 months, 53.9% (153/284) reported at least incident headache/worsening headache intensity at 12 months post-CABM, and/or incident hearing impairment, and/or unfavourable disability outcome (GOS). Unfavourable disability outcome was associated with lower physical health QOL (B = -30.35, p<0.001), lower mental health QOL (B = -15.31, p<0.001), lower environmental QOL (B = -11.08, p<0.001) and lower social relationships QOL (B = -9.62, p<0.001). Incident headache/worsening headache since meningitis onset was associated with lower psychological health (B = -5.62, p = 0.010). Incident hearing impairment was associated with lower physical QOL (B = -5.34, p = 0.030). Hierarchical regressions showed that CABM impairments significantly increase explanatory power of multivariate models (for physical health R(2) change = 0.42, p<0.001, for psychological health R(2) change = 0.23, p<0.001, for social relationships R(2) change = 0.06, p<0.001 and for environment domain R(2) change was 0.15, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: 12 month-CABM burden is heavy. Early detection and management of CABM impairments should be performed in clinical practice as early as possible to optimize patients’ psychological and psychosocial functioning. CLINICALTRIAL. GOV IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: NCT01730690.