The association between major complications of immobility during hospitalization and quality of life among bedridden patients: A 3 month prospective multi-center study

PURPOSE: To describe the association between major complications of immobility (pressure ulcer, pneumonia, deep vein thrombosis and urinary tract infection) during hospitalization and the patients’ health-related quality of life after discharge. METHODS: The data were obtained from a multi-center study conducted in 2015. Complications of immobility during hospitalization was measured by case report form and quality of life after discharge was measured using the EQ-5D scale by telephone interview. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to explore the association of complications and responses in the EQ-5D dimensions after controlling for important covariates. RESULTS: Among the 20,515 bedridden patients, 2,601(12.72%) patients experienced at least one of the major complications of immobility during hospitalization, including pressure ulcer (527, 2.57%), deep vein thrombosis (343, 1.67%), pneumonia (1647, 8.16%), and urinary tract infection (265, 1.29%). Patients with any of the four complications during hospitalization reported more problems in all EQ-5D dimensions except for pain/discomfort, and had lower mean EQ-VAS scores than those without any complications. The four complications all showed significant associations with the proportion of reported problems in certain dimensions after adjustment for confounding variables. CONCLUSIONS: Major complications of immobility were significantly associated with reduced health related quality of life. Prevention of complications is critical to reduce the burden of decreased quality of life for bedridden patients.