How does prior health status (age, comorbidities and frailty) determine critical illness and outcome? Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Critical illness has a significant impact on an individual's physical and mental health. However, it is less clear to what degree outcomes after critical illness are due to patients' preexisting characteristics, rather than the critical illness itself. In this review, we summarize recent findings regarding the role of age, comorbidity and frailty on long-term outcomes after critical illness. RECENT FINDINGS: Age, comorbidity and frailty are all associated with an increased risk of critical illness. Although severity of illness drives the risk of acute mortality, recent data suggest that longer term outcomes are much more closely aligned with prior health status. There are growing data regarding the important role of noncardiovascular comorbidity, including psychiatric illness and obesity, in determining long-term outcomes. Finally, preadmission frailty is associated with poor long-term outcomes after critical illness; further data are needed to evaluate the attributable impact of critical illness on the health trajectories of frail individuals. SUMMARY: Age, comorbidity and frailty play a critical role in determining the long-term outcomes of patients requiring intensive care.

publication date

  • October 1, 2016

Research

keywords

  • Comorbidity
  • Critical Care
  • Critical Illness
  • Frailty
  • Health Status
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84980410109

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/MCC.0000000000000342

PubMed ID

  • 27478965

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 22

issue

  • 5