OBJECTIVES

: Health related quality of life is an essential measure of health outcomes. ICU admission is considered a distress journey for both patients and their caregivers. Nevertheless, limited studies measured the quality of life of caregivers. This study aimed to assess caregivers’ quality of life before and after ICU admission of their critically ill cancer patients.

METHODS

: A one-year prospective cohort study (January 2017 to February 2018) conducted at a comprehensive cancer center in Jordan which included the caregivers of adult patients who were in the ICU for >24 hrs. The quality of life before ICU admission, as well as one week, one month and three months after ICU discharge were assessed for the caregivers using the EQ-5D-3L measure. The qualitative responses to the EQ-5D-3L questions were used to calculate the health utility summary measures using the time-trade-off value set for the UK population.

RESULTS

: During the study period, 140 caregivers completed the quality of life assessment at baseline, while assessment at 1 week, 1 month and 3 months after ICU discharge were completed by 89, 72, and 61 caregivers, respectively. Fifty percent of the caregivers were females and the mean age was 43 years. The mean utility values ±SD were 0.70±0.32, 0.72±0.31, 0.70±0.33 and 0.78±0.29 at baseline, one week, one month, and three months after discharge respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the utility scores between baseline and one week and baseline and one month after ICU discharge. However, a statistically significant difference was reported between baseline and three months after ICU discharge (p=0.0137).

CONCLUSIONS

: The caregivers quality of life started to improve three months after ICU discharge of their patients. Further assessment of the dimensions that mostly impacted caregivers’ quality of life is necessary.