Rationale: Survivors of acute lung injury (ALI) frequently have substantial depressive symptoms and physical impairment, but the longitudinal epidemiology of these conditions remains unclear. Objectives: To evaluate the 2-year incidence and duration of depressive symptoms and physical impairment after ALI, as well as risk factors for these conditions. Methods: This prospective, longitudinal cohort study recruited patients from 13 intensive care units (ICUs) in four hospitals, with follow-up 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after ALI. The outcomes were Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression score greater than or equal to 8 ("depressive symptoms") in patients without a history of depression before ALI, and two or more dependencies in instrumental activities of daily living ("impaired physical function") in patients without baseline impairment. Measurements and Main Results: During 2-year follow-up of 186 ALI survivors, the cumulative incidences of depressive symptoms and impaired physical function were 40 and 66%, respectively, with greatest incidence by 3-month follow-up; modal durations were greater than 21 months for each outcome. Risk factors for incident depressive symptoms were education 12 years or less, baseline disability or unemployment, higher baseline medical comorbidity, and lower blood glucose in the ICU. Risk factors for incident impaired physical function were longer ICU stay and prior depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Incident depressive symptoms and impaired physical function are common and long-lasting during the first 2 years after ALI. Interventions targeting potentially modifiable risk factors (e.g., substantial depressive symptoms in early recovery) should be evaluated to improve ALI survivors' long-term outcomes.Keywords: depression; recovery of function; critical illness; critical care; acute lung injury Survivors of acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI) and other critical illnesses frequently have substantial depressive symptoms and impaired physical functioning, with associated decrements in quality of life (1-9). At present, there are gaps in knowledge regarding the incidence and duration of these conditions in ALI survivors, as well as their risk factors.Our objective was to longitudinally examine the incidence and duration of depressive symptoms and impaired physical functioning in the first 2 years after ALI. We also sought to determine risk factors for each of these conditions, to help inform future prevention and treatment efforts. Some of the results of this study have been reported previously in the form of an abstract (10). METHODS Study PopulationMechanically ventilated patients with ALI (11) were enrolled consecutively in a prospective cohort study involving 13 intensive care units (ICUs) at four hospitals in Baltimore, Maryland, between October 2004 and October 2007 (12). To avoid inclusion of patients with primary neurologic disease or head trauma, neurologic specialty ICUs at the participating hospitals were excluded. Key exclusion criteria were (1) ...

Objective To compare acute lung injury (ALI) patients’ self-reported, retrospective baseline quality of life (QOL) before their intensive care hospitalization with population norms and retrospective proxy estimates. Design Prospective cohort study using the Short Form 36 (SF-36) QOL survey. Setting 13 intensive care units at 4 teaching hospitals in Baltimore, MD, USA. Patients 136 ALI survivors and their designated proxies. Interventions Both patients and proxies were asked to estimate patient baseline QOL before hospital admission using the SF-36 survey. Measurements and Main Results Compared to population norms, QOL scores were lower in ALI patients across all 8 domains, but the difference was significantly greater than the minimum clinically important difference in only 2 of 8 domains (Physical Role and General Health). The mean paired difference between patient versus proxy responses revealed no clinically important difference. However, kappa statistics demonstrated only fair to moderate agreement for all domains. Bland-Altman analysis revealed that for all domains, proxies tended to overestimate QOL when patient scores were low and underestimate QOL when patient scores were high. Conclusion Retrospective assessment of QOL prior to hospitalization revealed that ALI patients were consistently lower than population norms, but the magnitude of this difference may not be clinically important. Proxy assessments had only fair to moderate agreement with patient assessments. Across all 8 SF-36 QOL domains, proxy responses represented an attenuation of patient QOL estimates.