Does intensive care unit severity of illness influence recall of baseline physical function?

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate if severity of illness in the intensive care unit influences patients' retrospective recall of their baseline physical function from before hospital admission. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of 193 acute lung injury survivors who, before hospital discharge, retrospectively reported their prehospitalization physical function using the Short Form 36 quality of life survey. Results: Four measures were used to evaluate intensive care unit (ICU) severity of illness: (1) Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II Acute Physiologic Score at ICU admission, (2) Lung Injury Score at acute lung injury diagnosis, (3) Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at study enrollment, and (4) maximum daily Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score during the entire ICU stay. In multivariable linear regression analysis, no measure of severity of illness was associated with prehospitalization physical function. Education level significantly modified the relationship between ICU severity of illness and baseline physical function with lower educational attainment having a stronger association with baseline physical function. Conclusion: Intensive care unit severity of illness was not associated with patients' retrospectively recalled baseline physical function. Patients with a lower level of education may be more influenced by ICU severity of illness, but the magnitude of this effect may not be clinically meaningful. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.