Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2025
Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
[Incidence of acquired morbidity and its impact on patients in a pediatric intensive care unit based on the
Judith Frydman1, Mara Inés López1
1Hospital Central de Pediatría. Malvinas Argentinas; Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Insights
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit survivors often experience acquired morbidity, impacting functional status, particularly motor and feeding domains. Increased survival highlights the need to assess morbidity beyond mortality rates.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Intensive Care
- Critical Illness Recovery
- Child Health Outcomes
Background:
- Critical illnesses and treatments significantly impact children's cognitive, physical, mental, and social well-being.
- The Functional Status Scale was developed to track functional changes during hospitalization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate acquired morbidity in children discharged from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
- To compare mortality and morbidity rates, analyze functional status changes, identify affected domains, and explore relationships with diagnoses, age, and ventilation support.
Main Methods:
- An observational, descriptive, prospective, and longitudinal study.
- Included patients aged 1-180 months requiring ventilatory support for at least 48 hours (February 2021 - February 2024).
Main Results:
- 90.9% of patients survived, with 26.9% developing acquired morbidity.
- 42% experienced a functional status decline of at least one point, with motor and feeding domains most affected.
- Deceased patients had fewer days of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and hospitalization.
Conclusions:
- Acquired morbidity incidence exceeded mortality, indicating longer hospital stays and increased IMV requirements for affected children.
- Rising survival rates render mortality an insufficient outcome measure; morbidity assessment is crucial.
- Further research with extended follow-up is recommended to fully understand long-term impacts.
Introduction:
a significant number of children suffer cognitive, physical, mental and social limitations as a result of critical illnesses and their subsequent treatment. Pollack et al. developed the functional status scale with the purpose of measuring the change in functional status during hospitalization.
Objectives:
evaluate the acquired morbidity upon discharge from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Specific objectives: compare mortality and acquired morbidity rates, analyze changes in functional status categories, identify the most affected domains, describe relationships between domain affection and admission diagnosis, between domain affection and age group, between morbidity and days in invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), non-invasive ventilation and high-flow oxygen therapy.
Methodology:
observational, descriptive, prospective and longitudinal study. Patients between 1 and 180 months of age requiring ventilatory support for at least 48 hours, between February 2021 and February 2024, were included.
Results:
90.9% survived, and of these, 26.9% developed acquired morbidity. The 42% of patients changed their functional status at least one point. The most affected domains were motor and feeding. Those who died had fewer days of IMV and hospitalization.
Conclusion:
The incidence of acquired morbidity was higher than mortality in the analyzed period. Children who developed morbidity remained hospitalized for a longer period of time and had greater requirements and days of IMV. Increased survival makes mortality an insufficient outcome metric. More studies with longer follow-up are needed.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:21Planning Nursing Care I
01:19Restorative Care
01:17Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe...
01:29Intellectual Disability
01:15Methods of Documentation VI: Case Management Model
For example, a patient with a chronic...
01:18Factors Affecting Illness
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness,...