Kingston - A new Queen’s University study will investigate the quality of life and survival of patients 80 years and older admitted to intensive care units across Canada. The first of its kind in Canada, this is the largest study ever undertaken on the subject.

“We live in an aging society and the baby boomers’ unique health needs are just emerging,” notes study leader Daren Heyland, professor of Medicine at Queen’s and research director at the Clinical Evaluation Research Unit at Kingston General Hospital (KGH). “We know from our previous national surveys that most patients at the end of their life prefer comfort and dignity over being kept alive by technology, but increasingly we observe life sustaining technologies applied at the end of life in the very elderly population. This apparent contradiction makes us worried about the quality of end of life care these patients and their families are receiving.”

The REALISTIC 80 Study, (Realities, Expectations and Attitudes to LIfe Support Technologies in Intensive Care for Octogenarians) recently received close to $1 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

It is aimed at describing health outcomes of this very elderly population and providing information for physicians, so they can have frank, informed discussions with patients and their families about options for end of life care.

Focusing on patients 80 and older, who are typically considered to be at the end of their lives, researchers will collect information on every one of them admitted in a six-month period to 20 intensive care units across Canada, and select 800 patients and their families for one year follow-up.

The data will measure such topics as patient expectations, quality of life, functional status, mortality rates and—something never measured before —the cost of the family’s financial burden while they are caring for the patient and the family’s perception of quality end of life care.

“Not only will patients and their families have more accurate paths of patient outcomes on which to base difficult decisions, but our findings could influence policy makers to decide where health care dollars and critical care resources may be best spent,” adds Dr. Heyland.