Abstract 12724: High Health-Related Quality of Life Among Survivors of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Nationwide Survey From 2001-2019

Abstract

Background: Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has increased over the past two decades. However, little is known about the health-related quality of life of long-term survivors. Purpose: We conducted a nationwide survey to examine the long-term quality of life of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors from 2001-2019. Methods: The study included all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients from the Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry between 2001-2019 who were alive in October 2020. Health-related quality of life was evaluated using the EuroQol health questionnaire (EQ-5D), SF-12 Health Survey (SF-12), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: Of the 4,545 survivors, 2,552 (56.1 %) completed the survey. Respondent and non-respondent age was comparable (67 vs. 68 years). The median EQ-index score for survivors who had been alive for 0-1 year was 0.8 (Q1-Q3: 0.7-1.0), while survivors who had been alive for 15-20 years had a median EQ-index score of 0.9 (0.8-1.0). These scores were comparable to a Danish reference population, whose mean EQ-index score was 0.9 (SD: 0.16). Mean standardized SF-12 physical health score was 40.6 (SD: 12.7) for 0-1 year survivors vs. 44.4 (SD: 11.8) for >15-20-year survivors, and the SF-12 mental health score was 53.1 (SD: 8.4) vs. 54.1 (SD: 8.7), respectively. Both scores were comparable to a Danish reference population. In terms of symptoms of anxiety, 73% of survivors who had been alive for 0-1 year reported a normal score (score ≤ 8), compared to 89.3% of survivors who had been alive for 15-20 years. For symptoms of depression, the percentages were 79.7% and 87.5%, respectively (Figure 1). Health-related quality of life was similar for survivor groups >1-2, >2-4, >4-6, >6-8, >8-10, and >10-15 years after arrest. Conclusion: Short-term as well as long-term survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest generally reported high health-related quality of life after the event, regardless of the time elapsed since the arrest.