Assessment of the quality of life after discharge from the ICU: a comparison of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the mental health and well-being of people worldwide. Method: The authors conducted an observational pilot study, considering two patient cohorts: the first sample of 20 non-COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU from September 2019 to September 2020 and the second sample of 26 COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU from October 2020 and April 2021. Participants were contacted for a telephone interview within six months after discharge. Results: The quality of life, calculated through the SF-12, of patients admitted for COVID-19 in 2020-21 is worse than the sample discharged from the ICU in the previous period, 2019-2020. Conclusions: The quality of life indices that emerged in both the pandemic and pre-pandemic eras were lower than average, but when comparing the two cohorts, the indices collected in the pandemic era were lower.