Family Burden of ICU Survivors and Correlations with Patient Quality of Life and Psychometric Scores – A Pilot Study

INTRODUCTION: Post intensive care syndrome (PICS) affects an increasing number of critical illness survivors and their families, with serious physical and psychological sequelae. Since little is known about the burden of critical illness on ICU survivor families, we conducted a prospective observational study aiming to assess this, and investigate correlations of the patients’ psychometric and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores with family burden. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine patients were evaluated in the presence of a family member. Participants were assessed with the use of validated scales for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive decline, and the family burden scale (FBS). RESULTS: High burden was present in 27.6% of family members. Statistically significant correlations were observed between the FBS score and trait anxiety, depression, and the physical and psychological components of HRQOL. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that family burden following critical illness is common, suggesting that its assessment should be incorporated in the evaluation of PICS-family in large observational studies.