Background: Survivors of an acute critical illness with continuing organ dysfunction and uncontrolled inflammatory\nresponses are prone to become chronically critically ill. As mental sequelae, a post-traumatic stress disorder and an\nassociated decrease in the health-related quality of life (QoL) may occur, not only in the patients but also in their\npartners. Currently, research on long-term mental distress in chronically critically ill patient-partner dyads, using\nappropriate dyadic analysis strategies (patients and partners being measured and linked on the same variables) and\ncontrolling for contextual factors, is lacking.\nMethods: The present study investigates the interdependence of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and the\nhealth-related QoL in n = 70 dyads of chronically critically ill patients and their partners, using the Actor-Partner-\nInterdependence Model (APIM) under consideration of contextual factors (age, gender, length of partnership). The\nPost-traumatic Stress Scale (PTSS-10) and Euro-Quality of Life (EQ-5D-3L) were applied in both the patients and their\npartners, within up to 6 months after the transfer from acute care ICU to post-acute ICU.\nResults: Clinically relevant post-traumatic stress symptoms were reported by 17.1% of the patients and 18.6% of\nthe partners. Both the chronically critically ill patients and their partners with more severe post-traumatic stress\nsymptoms also showed a decreased health-related QoL. The latter was more pronounced in male partners\ncompared to female partners or female patients. In younger partners (greater than equal to 57 years), higher values of post-traumatic\nstress symptoms were associated with a decreased QoL in the patients.\nConclusions: Mental health screening and psychotherapeutic treatment options should be offered to both the\nchronically critically ill patients and their partners. Future research is required to address the special needs of\nyounger patient-partner dyads, following protracted ICU treatment.
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