Health-related quality of life 6 months after pediatric intensive care unit admission for bronchiolitis: a prospective single-center cohort study

Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) after Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) admission is considered a valuable outcome measure. Yet, data on HRQoL after PICU admission are scarce and often collected in heterogeneous patient groups. The current study aimed to evaluate HRQoL in children with bronchiolitis 6 months after PICU admission, which represents a homogenous patient group. This study was conducted at the Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Children admitted to the PICU between November 2019 and April 2020 were eligible. HRQoL was assessed with the “TNO-AZL Preschool children Quality of Life” (TAPQOL) questionnaire and compared to Dutch normative data. Lower scores represent worse HRQoL. HRQoL was assessed in 34 children (response rate 81%), mean age at assessment was 7.6 months (SD 2.5 months), and median length of stay was 5 days (range 1–17). Parents reported significant lower scores on stomach problems (p < 0.001; d = 0.8) and lung problems (p < 0.001; d = 1.2) and significant higher scores on appetite (p < 0.001; d = 0.6) and problem behavior (p < 0.001; d = 0.5) compared to normative data. Effect sizes were moderate to large. Conclusion: Significant differences in several HRQoL domains were found after PICU admission for bronchiolitis compared to normative data. Whereas the domains lung and stomach problems showed significantly impaired scores, most domains revealed HRQoL levels comparable with healthy peers. This study may contribute to the optimization of HRQoL PICU outcomes by highlighting specific HRQoL domains to focus on at admission and during follow-up. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00431-022-04700-8.