Impact of a Visual Support Dedicated to Prognosis on Symptoms of Stress of ICU Family Members: A Before-and-After Implementation Study

OBJECTIVES: Family members commonly have inaccurate expectations of patient’s prognosis in ICU. Adding to classic oral information, a visual support, depicting day by day the evolution of the condition of the patient, improves the concordance in prognosis estimate between physicians and family members. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of this tool on symptoms of anxiety/depression of family members. DESIGN: Bicenter prospective before-and-after study. SETTING: A nonacademic and a university hospital. SUBJECTS: Relatives of consecutive patients admitted in the two ICUs. INTERVENTIONS: In the period “before,” family members received classic oral information, and in the period “after,” they could consult the visual support in the patient’s room. The primary endpoint was the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score of relatives at day 5. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale anxiety subscale score > 7) and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression subscale score > 7) at day 5 and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score at day 90. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 140 patients and their referent family members were included (77 in period before and 63 after). Characteristics of patients of the two groups were similar regarding age, reason for admission, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II at admission, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at day 5. At day 5, median Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score was 17 (9–25) before and 15 (10–22) after the implementation of the visual support (p = 0.43). The prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression was similar in the two groups (66.2% and 49.4% before and 68.3% and 36.5% after [not significant], respectively). At day 90, median Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score was 11 before (7–16) and 9 (5–16) after the implementation of the tool (p = 0.38). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the use of a visual support tool dedicated to prognosis did not modify the level of stress of family members.